A Tweak in Fortune
by Notyou21
Summary: A single card can upset a pile. A solitary defect can exploit a system. A small tear in a dress can change Fates. Percy finds he is able to look into the immediate future at times. Sometimes its the past. Is it Apollo? Or not? Starts from the Titan's Curse, realistic Percy/Zoe. Not your usual storyline. My first fic.
1. Meeting the Hunters

**A/N: As mentioned in the summary, a different take on how small events can shape big ones. I'm also going to incorporate some events from 'Battle of the Labyrinth' - sorta mix it up a bit. This is my first story on this site. Please let me know what you think. Reviews, favourites and follows lend me encouragement. The first two chapters will be kind of similar to the book(building up the story) and it will really start to diverge from chapter 3. And now, without further ado, I present "A Tweak in Fortune" :**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything which is not mine.**

'Ouch! Percy, that's my toe.' A girl with spiky hair and an aura of funk around her said. Her electric blue eyes gazed at Percy with mild annoyance as Percy mis-stepped for the fourth time that evening.

'Sorry Thalia.' Percy said sheepishly, as erratic as ever while dancing(or trying to, at least). He cut a noticeable figure on the dance floor as the most well-built yet unbalanced person present. His blue eyes scanned his feet.

'Up here.' Commanded Thalia. Percy reluctantly agreed to what to would lead inevitably to another mishap.

Annabeth and Grover stood a little in the distance, looking at a pair of kids at the side of the hall. Grover was sure they were unclaimed demigods, and powerful ones at that.

The pair of demigods looked to be around 13 years old. They were brother and sister, both had dark hair and dark eyes and were trying to fit in awkwardly with the crowd. Their bodies betrayed unsureness in every movement they made. But it was clear that they were close, they trusted each other.

'They smell of death.' Said Grover with the confidence of an experienced Satyr.

'No way!' Annabeth shot back. But her stormy grey eyes betrayed her uncertainty. Her lean figure shifted a bit on the right and then to the left in confusion. The big three pact, had it been broken again?

What they hadn't noticed was a monster approaching the two. Thalia was the quickest to react, she dragged the other three out into the snow. It was a manticore and Nico and Bianca were captives. Annabeth charged; with sudden agility the manticore knocked the dagger out of her hand and held Annabeth at the throat.

'Annie, no!' Screamed Thalia.

Before anybody could do anything else, a horn sounded in the distance.

'Oh, no, no, no!' Thalia said. Before she could be asked about this comment a group of young girls came running out of the forest. They were all clad in silver and endowed with flawless skin and bows on their back to complete the picture.

The girl with silver crescent eyes seemed to be in charge at the front. Her eyes seemed to be assessing the situation in front of her.

'Permission to shoot, milady?' Another girl stepped forward. She had onyx black eyes and black hair braided at her back. Her skin was coppery and confidence oozed out of her being. A tiara was placed on her head to affirm her status as liuenatant. This was Zöe Nightshade, daughter of Atlas.

The manticore was enraged,' Direct interference! Against the Ancient Laws! You can'not do this!'

This was met with a proper response. The hunters had their prey at their mercy.

But a cornered beast will still fight. The manticore dropped Annabeth and charged at the hunters. They were caught unawares.

The girl at the forefront, Zoe, would have been crushed by the monster if not for her years of experience. She got away with a long gash on her forearm. But the manticore attacked again, blinded with fury. Zoe was an archer, not a close distance fighter. She nimbly avoided the manticore's strikes. The hunters were still hesitant; a few arrows flew but it did nothing to deter the monster.

The hunters were afraid of hitting their liutenant. Just when it seemed the monster would finally land a blow on Zoe, a sword suddenly jutted out of his chest. The light in the manticore's eyes dimmed before it vapourised into golden dust. Zoe stared in shock before her onyx eyes met her saviours green ones. Percy's heart skipped a beat while Zoe was careful to not show any hint of gratitude in her manner.

She turned back and walked to her mistress and bowed, a murmur of apology escaping her lips. Her mistress smiled,

'None of that, Zoe. I do not place any fault with you.'

'Thy hath never done so.' Was Zoe's response.

The girl with silver eyes turned back to the audience. Her eyes steeled as she addressed Atlanta, an old huntress.

'Make sure Zoe and Athena's daughter gets to the infirmary and bring the other demigods to my tent, I must talk to them, especially the girl – she looks young enough.'

Atlanta nodded.

Percy looked around with round eyes inside Artemis' tent. It was covered with fur and hides of very animal he could imagine.

'Listen very carefully, _boy_.' She said boy as if there could be no insult greater than it. She then proceeded to explain how Zeus would have to be informed about this and why he was not dead yet. She ended on a grim note,

'You seem respectful enough, but you better thank your stars that your sword did not touch Zoe. Another time, your stupidity coud get someone killed.'

And somehow, Percy felt that this was the real reason why Artemis had called him to her tent.

He slowly trudged outside as Bianca was escorted inside the tent. He looked around for Thalia, but there was no sign of her. Then he remembered that she would probably be with Annabeth inside the infirmary tent.

But which tent was it? He was scared stiff of entering any hunter's tent by mistake, the repurcussions were terrifying.

With a sigh of relief he noticed Zoe walking out of a largish tent with her arm completely healed. She tried to walk past Percy but he stopped her.

'Ummm, Miss Nightshade?' He said tentatively.

She turned around, her eyes flashing.

'If thy have come for any words of appreciation, thee will not get it! I do not thank _boys_ and nor do I praise _luck_. Get out of mine way now, _boy_.'

Percy rankled at the injustice but he kept his civility. Somehow in spite of her rude behaviour, he did not want to anger Zoe; and it went beyond being scared of her arrows.

'My name is Percy Jackson.' He said,' I only wanted to know if Annabeth and Thalia are inside this tent or not.'

'...Yes, they are.' Zoe nodded, after a moment of hesitation.

Percy quietly thanked her as he entered the tent. He could have almost sworn he heard her whisper, ' _Percy Jackson_ ' as the tent flap closed.

 **A/N: That's how the story's going to start and it will slowly progress from there. You can expect a new chapter every 4-5 days, more or less. Please support the story and review. This is my first story here - hope you like it.**


	2. Flying to school, I wish

**A/N: Thank you all for the unbelievable response! Shout out to 'M.J. Lyte', '** **gruntsbreeder' and 'TheYoLOMan' fo reviewing. I made this chapter longer than the last one - you're welcome. Favourites, follows and reviews lend me encouragement. And now, without further ado, I present the second chapter of 'A Tweak in Fortune'.**

The sun was still due to rise as Artemis impatiently tapped her foot on the snow. The hunters were gathered in a crowd behind her while the other 3 demigods and one satyr sat some distance off having an animated conversation.

'I'm so glad you refused their offer.' Thalia was saying.

'I think I did the right thing.' Bianca said unsurely.

'I'm sure you did.' Thalia said reassuringly.

'Why?' Percy piped up suddenly. He had been sitting quietly until now.

A frown crossed Thalia's face as she paused for a second,

'I have some history with the hunters… they tried to recruit me once, you know.'

'And you refused because?' Percy prompted.

Thalia's reply was cut off by a dazzling glare of light which appeared in the sky.

'Everybody shut your eyes!' Artemis shouted.

Everday averted their sight until the glow diminished. In its place was gold Masereti Spyder with a perfect circle of snow melted around it. Getting out of the car was none other than the God Apollo.

'Little sister!' He shouted and gave a blinding grin which showed off all of his brilliant white teeth.

His sister gave him a glare and sidestepped the hug he was trying to give her.

'You're late.' She said pointedly.

'It's winter.' Apollo deadpanned and then turned towards the gaping audience, giving a bow.

As soon as Apollo's eyes met Percy's a blinding headache took over the son of Poseidon. His knees folded under him as he fell on the ground and writhed in agony. Images flashed by:

 _An island, covered in greenery. A young Artemis and Apollo playing in the sands._

 _Then-_

 _The original Mount Olympus, covered in gold and silver - minor gods, goddesses, nymphs and spirits roaming around._

 _Then-_

 _Apollo, standly proudly in the throne room of the Gods, being given his titles by the Fates and proclaimed God of the Sun._

A few more fuzzy images floated by and suddenly:

 _A girl with spiky hair, was that Thalia? She was driving a… school bus, was it? In the sky? Emotions of fear, panic and anxiety floated by._

As unexpectedly as they came, the images stopped all of a sudden. Percy slowly blinked as the headache gradualy subsided. A grinning Apollo came into focus. Percy immediately backpedalled a fews steps and got up cautiously. Everybody looked at Percy expectantly.

Percy said the only sensible thing he could think of,

'Hello, guys.' He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

Apollo gave a shout of laughter and held his stomach while Annabeth glared at Percy,

'That's it, "Hello guys"?! You fall down, scream, hold your head and roll at least 20 metres and all you have to say is "hello guys"!?' Annabeth said in exasperation.

Percy was still confused,

'Yeah, well, yes! All I remember is falling down as soon as Apollo looked at me and having all these weird images go through my mind.'

'Weird images?' Apollo asked, a thoughtful look crossing his face.

Percy nodded.

'What kind... No wait. Don't tell me. It was probably just a minor headache. Forget about it. Everybody board the bus!' Apollo ended on a feigned cheery note.

Before anybody could ask, the Maserati Sypder turned into a large schoolbus.

The hunters boarded got on board but Annabeth stalled long enough to accost Apollo,

'Minor headache! What kind of _minor_ _headache_ causes visions, oh mighty God of Prophecy?'

Apollo blatantly ignored her before he boarded the bus as well. Annabeth followed behind, fuming with anger.

Thalia was filling in the details for Percy.

'So basically Artemis went to hunt some incredibly dangerous monster and the hunters are coming with us to Camp.'

Annabeth took a seat beside them as the bus took off into the air.

Apollo turned to face them,

'So who wants to drive?' He asked.

Nobody responded. Apollo ran an eye over them.

'What about you, daughter of Zeus?'

'Me…me?' Thalia responded.

Immediately recollections of what he had seen during his 'headache' came back to Percy. What if that was actually about to happen? Everything had been right until now, so why not the bus ride?

'Me. I'll drive.' Offered Percy.

'No, Percy…' Thalia's objection died away in her throat as she remembered the bus was flying.

'It's fine.' Percy insisted.

Thalia shot him a grateful look.

Apollo's eyes lit up immediately.

'Aha! We have a volunteer! Come on up then.' He gestured Percy to the driver's seat and threw him the keys.

Somehow Percy managed to get them near the Camp before the bus crashed. Luckily, by that time, Apollo had flashed the passengers inside Camp Half-Blood safe and sound. The same could not be said for his bus/car/sun chariot. It was a deplorable wreck. Apollo looked at it ruefully before snapping his fingers – the vehicle vanished.

'Where did it go?' Annabeth asked curiously.

'Heaphasatus's workyard. He'll fix it in no time. Oh, I'll need to talk to him about some upgradations.'

'So what about the sun?' She asked.

'What about it? It's over there.' Apollo pointed first upwards and then at himself.

'How can you fly the sun chariot if its not there?'

Apollo looked amusedly at the daughter of Athena,

'I always keep a spare one around. It comes in handy in situations like this.'

And with that, Apollo flashed away in an expolsion of light. Annabeth had averted her eyes just in time. She glared at the now empty spot – sure that it was for being too curious about Percy's headache.

Zöe was going to Artemis' cabin, her mind full of old memories which had been painfully resurfaced. But she could not, _would_ not think about it. What else…

She shifted her mind to other thoughts.

She was the only person aware of the disaster which had been averted by… Percy, was it? Millenia of experience had taught her to recognize the weaknesses of her opponents by the smallest of indications. It was clear that the daughter of Zeus was either scared of heights or scared of Apollo. She was almost certain that it was heights and not Apollo, because… Apollo, seriously?

Perhaps disaster was too strong a word, but the girl _had_ been saved from a great deal of mental agony. She could appreciate the act of helping a young maiden but she also wondered if the _boy, Percy,_ knew what exactly he had done. Not to say that he had done a great job of it, but still…

She tried to force herself not to think of it any further. This incident and another had too many similarities between them to keep her mind at ease. Disaster for one, averted by another who knew what would happen.

Little did she know someone was watching her every step as she shook her head and entered the Artemis cabin. That person suddenly jumped as a satyr poked his head out from behind a tree.

'Percy, what're you doing here man?' The satyr, Grover, said.

'Nothing.' Percy replied,' What are _you_ doing here?'

Grover smiled sheepishly,

'You know that satyrs have a thing for nature and Artemis is just _so_ … you know, all about nature. So I just, well, like hanging around here.'

Grover paused and then said,' But you're not a satyr.'

He looked at Percy expectantly.

'I'm not…' Percy said, 'Its just that she, Zöe, looked so sad, I kind of feel resposible for it. I wanted to see if I could do anything about it.'

'What did _you_ do?'

 **A/N: So that's the end of this chapter. So what do you think? Is it good or bad? Should it be faster paced or slower? Do you like crumpets?  
** **Please review and let me know.**


	3. Quest for a RED herring, or is it?

**A/N: So this is where its starts to get a bit more interesting. More elements of "Battle of the Labyrinth" will be introduced as the chapters progress. Thanks for your support. Oh, and I also introduced first person POV's for a change.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing which is not mine.**

 _Earlier:  
_ _Grover paused and then said,' But you're not a satyr.'_

 _He looked at Percy expectantly._

 _'I'm not…' Percy said, 'Its just that she, Zöe, looked so sad, I kind of feel resposible for it. I wanted to see if I could do anything about it.'_

 _'What did **you** do?'_

 _Now:_

'I…. well. She kind of saw riptide and freaked out.' Percy told Grover before he got 'shocked' by Thalia who was converging on them.

'We've been looking for you for ages, Kelp Head. Chiron's giving swordfighting lessons to the younger campers and he's looking for you.'

Percy groaned,

'Relax, Sparky. I'll be there in some time.' Percy turned back to Grover before again getting lightly electrocuted by Thalia.

Thalia had a mischevous look in her eyes and sprinted towards the arena as Percy gave chase.

Percy POV 

Finally, at noon, I'm done with the lessons. Its been a gruelling couple of hours. You might think – Hey Percy, but you like swordfighting! Let me tell you, having a few kids swinging around their swords like baseball bats is _not_ fun, especially when those bats have got sharp, pointy, edges.

While I was busy wallowing in my self-misery, I felt a coin tap on my head, which then rolled on to the ground. When I bent down to pick it up, I noticed a sun was engraved on it. The coin was pure gold. A slip of paper was lying beneath the coin. Where did that come from?

 _A few words for you,_

 _Quest, huntress, I'll be waiting,_

 _You have ten minutes._

Being the sad human being I was, I stood there blankly for three whole precious minutes. I think I would been there for three more if not for the tap on my shoulder. I turned back and came face to face with a huntress, (you guessed it) Zöe.

'What?' I managed to croak, my mind running furiously through all the ways I could tell her about the current situation.

'I needed to ask thou about something.' Was as far as Zöe got before I pushed the note and coin into her hand.

Before cohesion even considered about the merest possibility of crossing my mind, darkness engulfed me as a light, flying sensation took over my body before it hit hard ground.

A light weight fell on my body as I pushed it off in panic. Sadly, I've never been able to figure out who it was till date. In the dim light, I noticed Zöe and a strange girl with red hair standing beside her. We were in a largish room with no windows. A pair of green eyes were staring at us. As my vision improved, I noticed there was not just one, but at least 50 pairs of eyes – red, yellow and green. They were monsters – hellhouds, empousai and a few others I didn't recognize. My instincts instantly took over – my hands went to my pocket and riptide formed in my hands. I heard a girl scream as I slashed at the nearest monster.

To my surprise, it didn't vaporize into dust as they usually do. One half of the monster simply fell to the ground. That was when I noticed something strange – none of the other monsters were attacking us.

Then I noticed something even stranger, they weren't moving at all.

My astonishement was complete when somebody flipped on a light switch and I noticed that they weren't monsters at all, they were paintings.

Zöe POV

Bless thy soul, the foolish demigod had thought those paintings were _real_. I'll admit, even I had got startled when I first saw the pictures, hence an arrow which was stuck dead between the eyes of one. But it didn't take me long to realize the truth after that.

Percy was still staring at them. Someone had to do something, so I caught the back of his shirt and pulled him to face the red-haired girl. Her face was covered with different colours – paints - as was her shirt. She looked at us curiously.

'You have a sword…' She pointed accusingly at Perseus.

'Yeah.' Percy answered, and frowned,' Who's your godly parent, anyways?'

'Godly parent?' She repeated, scrunching her eyebrows.

I sighed. This was going to take a _long_ time. I pondered how to break the news to her.

Meanwhile she had sommehow persuaded Percy into giving Riptide to her. _Stupid boy_ – Giving weapons to an inexperienced demigod. Before I could reach the duo the sword clattered to her feet and passed clean through her leg without doing anything to it. _What?_

That could only mean one thing – she was mortal.

'What is thy name?' I asked.

'Rachel Elizabeth Dare.' She answered, stuttering, not quite over the shock of having a sword pass through her, which was quite understandable.

Percy looked cluelessly at her. I supressed the urge to smile – he clearly did not know about clear-sighted mortals. The next half an hour passed in explaining to both of them what they did not know.

Only then did I remember that Percy had yet to tell me why he had brought me here; _how dare he_!? _He hadn't even asked me about it!_

I decided to accost him after we brought Rachel to camp. There were a few things about her that intruiged me, she had a vague power of capturing the future in her artwork.

It appeared Percy had no idea how to get back. I would have settled for running, but it seems the other two were both suffering from severe leg injuries. I cast a suspicious eye at Perseus. Rachel prevented an argument from breaking out by offering to arrange for transport. It turned out 'arranging for transport' meant hiring a chauffeur driven limosuine, courtesy of _Dare Enterprises_.

Just before we left, Rachel went and got a picture from her room and showed it to me once inside the vehicle. I gasped – it showed Artemis on top of Mount Orthyrs, holding the weight of the sky on her shoulders. It troubled me so much that I forgot about talking to Perseus, for the time being.

Percy POV

Zöe was strangely dowcast throughout our trip to Camp Half-Blood. I wanted to comfort her, but I had a feeling I might lose a few body parts if I as much as touched her. So I abstained.

Back at camp, we part ways without even a goodbye. It hurt me more than it should have for such a small thing. I had thought our little adventure meant something; but Zöe was so distracted that she almost entered the Demeter cabin by mistake.

I decided to go to the arena, it always succeeded in improving my mood. Luckily, a few of the older campers were there, including Beckendorf. Beckendorf was like my older brother, he would always see that I got a proper opponent and proper advice, which was not necessarily restricted to warfare.

He set me up with Clarisse: a dangerous opponent but I thought I could handle her. She took out her spear and charged.

Of course, that was when things had to go from worse to terrible for me.

I promptly blacked out before she even reached me. Well, not completely. Images started appearing in my mind again,

' _The oracle, outside the big house, reciting a prophecy. Emotions of sorrow and anger passed through my mind._

I couldn't hear the prophecy though.

Then–

' _Zeus's Fist, a small golden symbol glowing in the fissure between the fingers and the thumb_.'

Then-

' _Zöe, walking upto me with a furious look in her eyes_.'

I woke up with a dull throbbing pain in my stomach, my eyes snapped open. Chiron was looking at me gravely.

'What happened, my boy? We almost thought you were dead.'

 **A/N: Next chapter should be up in a week's time at most - got some(okay, a lot) of stuff to do in the next few days. I'll try my best though. And review maybe?**


	4. The Prophecy

**A/N: Looks like I'm back again, earlier than I thought I would. Only one review last chapter?(thanks, by the way).  
** **C'mon people... But maybe I was expecting too much. Enjoy the chapter and I'll see you at the end.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing which is not mine.**

Two hellhounds were circling a boy who was watching them closely with a celestial bronze sword in his hands. The boy had greyish eyes and hair which was completely, disturbingly, black. He was wearing a worn out shirt and jeans along with a nervous look on his face. The hellhounds edged closer to their prey and vanished into gold dust as the sword found its mark. The boy felt something behind him move and swirled around to stab it.

All he found was Percy with wide eyes and hands held up.

'Hold up there, dude. I'm not going to harm you.'

'Where… where's the hound?' The boy stuttered, stumbling a little.

'I killed it. You need to calm down.' Percy said slowly and started walking up the hill. 'Follow me.' He said.

* * *

'So what do you think, Chiron?' Percy was saying once they were at the Big House.

'Remarkable. Undoubtedely remarkable. A wild demigod with a sword who you found wandering near camp. Where did you get the sword, boy?'

The boy scowled at Chiron,

'My name's Theseus, I found my sword lying on the ground when I woke up one day. And before you ask, I was sort of drawn towards this _camp_ place.'

'This camp place, my boy, is where you will learn to survive. Since you are unclaimed, you will stay in the Hermes cabin. Percy will show you around camp.'  
And with that, Chiron went back to playing cards with Mr D.

Theseus followed Percy as he led him around Camp Half-Blood.

'So who's your Godly parent?' Asked Percy.

'My mom, I guess. I was told she died in a car crash.'

'Makes sense.' Percy nodded as he showed Theseus to the Hermes cabin. They stopped for a second before Percy waved a hand.

'See you around.' Theseus nodded.

* * *

Later in the evening, Chiron made an annoncement.

'Tonight, we will have the customary Capture the Flag game! Campers vs Hunters! No killing, please! You have 20 minutes to prepare.'

As usual, the Athena cabin masterminded the plan of attack.

'Apollo, Heaphasatus and Ares cabin - go for the frontal attack. Rest of you defend the flag except Percy and the Hermes children. Percy, you go from the right and Travis, Connor, whatever – lead from the left. With luck on our side, we can win this! LETS DO THIS CAMPERS!'

The game was on. Percy had stealthily edged himself through the right side of the forest and was approaching the Hunters' flag. He slowly came to a little clearing – the Flag was right there, ungaurded. Just as he was about to break into a sprint, an arrow landed right in front of his feet.

A silver blur jumped down from one of the trees. Percy looked at her in disbelief. It was Zöe, as stealthy and elegant as ever.

'But our plan worked – the Hermes cabin… on the left…'.

Zöe smirked at him.

'Well, the rest of the hunters are there. I stayed; and it looks like the Athena cabin didn't let me down. '

Percy groaned but took an attacking stance. Zöe just stood there and fired arrows at him. He blocked some with his sword and some with his shield as he edged closer. Just as he was close enough to try and take a strike, his legs were swept out from under him.

In a flash, Zöe was on top of him with a knee on his chest and a knife at his throat. Percy suddenly felt very self-conscious.

'Yield.' She said.

Percy didn't answer for some time.

' _Yield_.' She insisted and pressed the knife harder.

'I yield.' Percy said once he could find no means of escape. Zöe released him at once and he got up to his feet, blushing furiously. Suddenly, the world went dark as he fell down once again with a stupid grin on his face.

 _This time the only thing he saw was green fumes gathered around the Oracle and Annabeth standing in front of her.  
_ _Get her here,_ _ **now**_ _.' An ancient voice echoed._

Percy immediately got up and found Annabeth from the crowd that had gathered near him. The hunters were nowhere to be seen.

'Annabeth!' He shouted, everybody was staring at him.

'Go to the Oracle, now!' The look in his eyes was such that she wisely didn't question him and ran off towards the Big House.

When she came back, her eyes were full of panic and anxiety. She was panting, visibly tired from running.

'We have a Quest.' She said in between breaths.

'What'the prophecy, my dear?' Chiron asked with a grave look in his eyes.

Annabeth took a deep breath and recited,

' _Three shall go west to the goddess in chains,_  
 _One shall be lost in the land without rain,_

 _The bane of Olympus shows the trail,_  
 _Campers and Hunters combined shall fail,_

 _The Titan's Curse must none withstand,_  
 _And one shall perish by a father's hand.'_

' _No!'_ Screamed Zöe from the crowd. 'This cannot be!'

Chiron raised his eyes towards her,

'You fear for your mistress?'

'Yes, I _know_ it is her. The hunters shall go, the campers can'not do this. We will not leave the fate of _our_ mistress to other demigods or _boys_!'

Chiron looked confused for a second before comprehension entered his eyes,

'Ah, the fourth line of the Prophecy. You fear that since Annabeth is a camper, the hunters will not be able to go?'

' _Yes_.'

'If the Fates have decreed it so, then so it must be. The Quest shall leave at dawn tomorrow. As for the hunters, I can only offer my deepest regrets. For after all, you can'not be certain that it is Artemis.'

With that, Chiron trotted away from the gathering.

Zöe gazed at him, crushed and unable to tell anbody about the painting – nobody except the hunters would believe her.

But the hunters too looked sorrowfully at their liuenatant. Phoebe was the one who spoke up,

'Zöe, you're my best friend. But I am saddened that you think so little of Artemis that she would allow herself to be captured.'

 _Great, now even the hunters won't believe her._

* * *

Meanwhile, Percy lay in the hospital wing but his mind was somewhere else. He was dreaming that he was inside a completely white room. Out of nowhere, a voice came to his ears,

'Peace, young demigod. I see that you have discovered your powers.'

'Who are you?' Percy shouted, it did not sound like anyone he knew.

The voice chuckled,

'That does not nearly matter as much as why I'm here. I am here to tell you about yourself and help you.'

'Why should you want to help me?' Percy shouted before he almost slapped himself in disgust. That almost sounded like an accusation.

The voice chuckled once again,

'Again, I repeat what I said earlier. The time has come for you to make some decisions.'

'What kind of decisions?'

'The important kind.'

 **A/N: So any guesses on who he(or she) is? Any advice? Any criticisms? REVIEW.**


	5. Quest? No, a mission actually

**A/N: I would have updated earlier but the site was down, not that its even worth mentioning. Its been this way for at least the last...(insert age of website) years. Yeah, I got a bit frustrated. So moving on, there's an important Author's note at the end; be sure to read it. And thanks for all the support.£** **!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing which is not mine.**

 _Earlier:  
_ _'Why should you want to help me?' Percy shouted before he almost slapped himself in disgust. That almost sounded like an accusation._

 _The voice chuckled once again,_

 _'Again, I repeat what I said earlier. The time has come for you to make some decisions.'_

 _'What kind of decisions?'_

 _'The important kind.'_

 _Now:  
_ The voice continued in the same imperious tone,

'Yes, it is important. You see, you are not the first person ever to have this power but you are the first demigod in 300 years to have this. This causes… some complications. This power I speak I of, it was originally bestowed by the Oracle of Delphi to your predecessor on your mother's side.'

Percy scrunched his eyebrows in despair, trying desperately to make some sense out of this. If only a good question….

'The Oracle, surely you mean Apollo?' He asked.

The voice sounded vaguely irritated at being interrupted,

'Did I not just say Oracle? So coming back to the complications. I'll give you a choice, surrender the power or die. What do you say?'

'That's it?' Percy asked unsurely.

The voice seemed unhappy at this question,

'Well, there is something. But you would die anyways, so there's no point in trying. Your death would also be painfull. I would recommend a free non-stop trip down to the underworld and a mostly painless death.'

'What?'

'Ah, painless would mean shooting you with some of my godly energy. A slight tingling sensation, no less. I would also…'

'No, not the death. What would I need to do to retain my power?'

A moment's silence was followed by a small cough,

'Nothing, actually. The power itself will kill you. It has a side-effect. You will only get visions when you need it the least. The more dangerous the situation, the more important the vision. For mortals, they might get a burnt toast. But for you, well, gods are important, you see. You might develop a tendency to die.'

'Umm… what happens if I surrender my power?'

'Well, the power has become a big part of you by now. If I try to take it, you might not survive. Its sort of like taking the bullets out of the gun; but at least this way your chances of survival are better.'

The voice suddenly took on a slightly cheerful tone,

'Well anyways, you have one day to decide. Try not to die till then.'

Percy lurched out of the dream and woke up with Will Solace staring and examining him like a butterfly speciman. He muttered a quick thanks and sprinted outside and back to his cabin. It was dark and after curfew as he anxiously opened the door and entered.

It took him some time time to realise that it was Nico Di Angelo who was in his cabin sitting silently in the dark with his back to the wall.

'Percy…' Nico started, getting up to his feet. He was interrupted by a small ' _Eep_!'.

'Is it normal for you to play hide-and-seek in the middle of the night?' Percy enquired in a half- sarcastic voice, regaining his composure.

' _No_.' Nico said forcefully. Percy noticed something was not quite right in the demigod's manner. He flipped on the light. To his shock, he noticed wet streaks on Nico's face. His lip was bleeding.

'Percy,' Nico started again, his voice strained. It seemed as if even talking was taking a lot of effort for Nico. ' They're taking her. My sister, I mean. Bianca… she's going… She's all I had.'

A moment's silence followed. Percy sat down on his bed and leaned towards the demigod.

'Going where?' Percy asked gently.

'On the _Quest_. The Quest which you issued!' Anger suddenly crept into Nico's voice.

'I didn't…'Percy started defensively before being cut off.

' _Yes_ , you told Annabeth to go! And now Bianca's also going and she might… she might _die_ because of that!'

'I'm sorry, Nico.' Percy said quietly,' If I can do anything…'.

Percy's words took Nico by surprise. Suddenly a maniacal gleam came into his eyes.

'Yes, you can.' He burst out,' You can protect her. You're strong. You can do it. Protect her Percy, please…'

Now it was Percy's turn to be taken aback.  
'I can… I can try.' Percy's voice faltered.

'Swear on the Styx, otherwise your words mean nothing.' Nico's voice trembled, he knew Percy would probably refuse.

'Nico…' Percy looked at Nico. He didn't know what to do about Bianca now. But it was partially his fault. Having accepted that, there was really only one thing to do.

'I swear on the Styx to do my utmost to save Bianca from harm during her Quest.'

Thunder rumbled in the distance. A look of ecstacy came in Nico's eyes. It seemed as if a huge weight had been lifter from his shoulders. His gratitude was overflowing.

'Why did you come here. To tell me, I mean?' Percy asked afterwards.

A dry laugh escaped Nico's lips,  
'Where else could I go to?' He answered before going back to the Hades' cabin.

Back in his bed, Percy could think of only one thing.

 _What else have I got myself into?_

* * *

Zöe was having a bad day. No, cut that; bad days were when she would lose a shooting contest against Atlanta or see a man without at least seriously injuring him (with good reason, of course).

No, this was way beyond terrible.

First, she found out that Artemis was captured under the sky. Which meant Atlas was not under it. Second, she found that she could not go on the quest to save her. Third, her own adoptive sisters refused to believe her or help her in saving their mistress.

Talk about terrible.

And then there was that demigod who refused to stop intruiging her. He would always find a way to disrupt her life somehow. It was his sword most of all, she convinced herself. _Where did he get that sword?_

The Quest was another thing which bothered her, other than the obvious things. Why did that girl Annabeth decide to take Bianca and Theseus along with her? Of all people, she just _had_ to take two inexperienced demigods who just got to know that they _were_ demigods.

And she was supposedly a daughter of Athena. Ares' children would have more sense.

And then there was the fact that she didn't take Percy. He was the obvious choice, surely. Maybe there was more to that couple than met the eye.

With a sigh, she finished sharpening the last arrow in her quiver and gazed through the thicket of green trees to see the first rays of the sun creeping through. She had got up way before sunrise with a mission(keyword: _mission,_ not _Quest_ ) to save Artemis. She was in the outskirts of the forest. The only person she had told was Phoebe, who didn't object but the dissapointement showed clearly in her eyes.

' _I can't stop the_ lieutenant. _'_ Had been her words. They hurt Zöe, she had not expected such harshness from her closest friend.

Through the corner of her eye, she noticed the son of Poseidon creeping deeper into the forest. _Strange,_ she wondered _, he didn't appear to be much of a morning person._

She hid behind a tree till Percy dissapeared and crossed over the camp's magical borders. She knew where she had to go. Zöe took a deep breath and swiftly started running across the deserted fields.

 _'I'm coming, milady,'_ she promised. ' _I'm coming.'_

 **A/N: And no, she's not going to run to San Francisco. | So** **I got a question for all you people. I had this great idea for another story in my mind and I've already written the beginning. So the thing is, should I post that one and update it or stick to my current one(considering that this is my first fic) _or_ should I try to write both of them together(which would be a somewhat difficult task and might bring down the quality of my writing)? I'm seriously confused here. Please tell me what you think. **


	6. Speechless

**A/N: First of all, many thanks for all the suggestions for my new story. If you're interested, I'll have the first chapter of my other story up in around 3 days. I plan on posting 2 chapters by the end of this month and see how it goes from there. If you're not, you shouldn't have read that. Oh, could I also trouble you for a bit of constructive criticism?** **1 New chapter, coming up:**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything which is not mine.**

'Why can't I find the dratted entrance?' Zöe muttered in frustration. The warehouse frowned down at her in a gloomy yet majestic way, as if saying - _'That's your problem_.' Zöe moved away a few more crates but to no avail. There was no sign of the structure she was looking for her. It worried her, it was almost sunset and she was no closer to Artemis than she had been for the last 3 hours. The bow felt heavy in her hands.

'Hands up!' A voice came from behind. Zöe cursed herself for letting down her guard. Slowly, she turned around and noticed a gun pointed at her. There were two men in a blue uniform. Sighing, she snapped her fingers.

 _'There was nobody here, this place is empty and you have nothing to report. Now go.'_ She said.

The two mortals slowly blinked and walked out of the warehouse. That should have been the end of her troubles, but no. She continued her search peacefully before sitting down on a crate, exhausted. Her solitude was interrupted by a huge shadow looming over her. She turned back in shock but it was too late.  
Two huge Lastrygonian Giants were onto her. ' _Capture her!'_ A chilling voice came from behind.  
' _The mist leaves its traces, did you know that, girl?_ ' A little chuckle followed, the voice reeked evil.

Zöe could do nothing to resist.  
 _'I'm sorry, Artemis. I failed you.'_ Were her last thoughts before everything went dark.

Percy POV  
I hate rocks. I've literally looked over at least all the big rocks in the forest but I still can't find that glowing triangle thing on any of them. The Quest would leave any minute now and I had to follow Bianca. I simply had to find _that_ rock before going. Why? Just a gut feeling, I guess. Not to mention all the dreams I'd been having about a fist shaped rock with a glowing triangle. And no, I've already checked Zeus's fist. There was nothing there. Then I noticed Rachel walking towards me. Why was she even here? She looked as if she was about to give me a hug, then stopped herself.

'No, I guess I can't do that now.' She said.

I looked at her curiously.

'Why not?' I asked, not that I'm complaining.

'I'm a hunter, aren't I? They've got this huge anti-male thing going on.' She bit her nails.

'You're what?' I asked in astonishment.

'A hunter.' She said simply.

'Why?'

'I… well… Artemis _herself_ asked me. Imagine that, a goddess… Something to do with me being clear-sighted. And they've also got all these immortality benefits. Ummm… I didn't consider the whole boy hating thing, to be honest. Oh, well.' She shrugged,' I'll have to get used to it now.'

I gazed at her stupidly.

'Congrats, I guess.' I said. 'So why are you here, then?'

Rachel suddenly took on a panicked look.

'Oh my God… oh my gods!' She corrected herself. 'I completely forgot about it. I'm looking for Zöe, she's missing. Have you seen her?'

'No.' I replied slowly, wondering if I could trust her with something else.

'Listen,' I said, ' I was looking for a big fist-shaped rock with a glowing triangle thing on it. But I'll have to go now. So, could do that for me and tell me when I'm back. Please.' I added.

Rachel looked at me as if I was crazy.

'Big rock… glowing triangle thingy… right…' She repeated slowly.

'Yeah, that's it. Thanks awfully!' I replied in a hurry. I had seen the Questers boarding the camp van. I started retreating from the still motionless figure with red hair.

'But when will you be back?' She shouted after me.

I didn't reply. Truth is, I didn't know that myself.

3rd Person POV  
A demigod with an eyepatch on one eye slowly creeped into a dark, quiet room.

'What news do you bring?' A deep, majestic voice boomed out.

'Good news, my… milord.' The demigod stuttered.

'Well, what is it then?! Tell me, you foolish mortal! Don't just stand there.' The voice was laced with annoyance.

'Ye… yes milord. She has been captured. She is being escorted to the arena as we speak.'

There was silence for a minute, and then two. After 5 minutes the demigod's eyebrows started to sweat. The powerful being gave no indication of his thoughts. Just as he was about to leave the voice spoke again,

'This is indeed news. You may leave now; and go to the ship. You will be confined to the ship for a week. I will know if you do not do as I command.'

'The… _the_ ship? But its full of monsters and hardly anybody else.'

'Precisely.' The voice had an unfeeling quality which did not at all appeal to the demigod.

'But… but I brought you _good_ news.' The demigod protested in disbelief. Normally he would not have dared questioned his supeior's orders. But this was desperate.

There was no reply, as if he was wondering how a lowly half-blood dared to speak back.

'You brought me news _._ ' Was the slightly irritated, deep reply at last. 'Now go!'

The demigod retreated to the door with renewed haste and dared not look back even once.

Percy POV  
Hovering above the Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. on Blackjack was going fine until the Neaman Lion showed up. _Darn it,_ I thought to myself and crashed through the doors with what I thought was a pretty heroic entrance. That was when the Neaman Lion decided I was a better meal than Bianca and charged at me. [Yeah! Poseidon always over Hades, haters!]

Sadly, I almost died.

Luckily, a _C-29 Dolphin_ aircraft saved me. All the fighting seemed to have unsettled it due to which it crashed onto the Lion from its stand. The momentary distraction allowed to me escape to safer territory, namely behind Annabeth. Yeah, its pretty humbling when a useless piece of metal saves you from certain death.

'Percy!? What are you doing here?' Annabeth hissed.

I rolled my eyes,

'Looking at the exhibtions and all the lovely rocket engines. What else did _you_ think?' I answered in a droll voice.

The Neaman lion crashed our lovely conversation. _Stupid kitty,_ I thought. I looked angrily at Thesues, he should help us! He was busy bending over his knee and dabbing it with something. _Coward_ , I thought.

Annabeth and I split as Annabeth shouted something to Bianca.

Bianca nodded and stopped shooting arrows.

'I'll distract it.' I shouted. _Great idea._ I started edging closer and drenched it with water from the nearby dispenser. It angrily shook its wet fur and turned towards me with unrestrained hatred. Looks like it doesn't like water. I slashed at its iron fur with Riptide. It didn't even seem to notice the contact, but gazed at me with renewed anger. I slowly backed away towards the corner of the building. I was trapped. The Neaman lion opened its jaws wide as if to… devour me whole, maybe?

It didn't get a chance. Three arrows flew into its mouth from above with pinpoint accuracy and it disintegrated into golden dust.

I was barely realizing that I wasn't going to die before the ground opened beneath my feet and I got a sudden feeling of weightlessness.

'Percy, where are you?! We did it!' A voice shouted. For the second time that day, I didn't have an answer. I was busy falling into the darkness.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading. Until next time.**


	7. Trapped

**A/N: I'm back. I don't usually take this much time between updates but well, it happens. As it happens, I published a new story. Its called 'The Tiara'. Check it out if you can. I think its better in terms of writing and originality. I would really appreciate if you read it and supported it(if you liked it).**

 **I made this chapter a bit longer than usual. Please review. I feel lost without any feedback; and I don't mind criticism.**

Zöe POV

Darkness. Complete darkness greeted my eyes as I woke up. I shivered slightly - I was lying on a cold, dark, stone floor. I was underground.

I felt for quiver and bow but it was not anywhere around, as I knew it would not be. The most astonishing thing was that I wasn't dead yet. They, whoever they were, had kept me alive for some reason. I carefully got up to my feet and had barely walked a few steps before I felt hard, steel on my left leg and fell painfully on the ground. My anger rose as I checked my leg. It had steel shackles around it, how dare they?

My anger mounted as I slowly came to the realisation that there was nothing I could do until somebody freed me. The restraints were perfectly implemented. Hours passed; hopeless lonely hours; before I was freed.

The sound of footsteps came to my ears to break the monotony. Suddenly the corridor lit up with a line of flaming torches on both sides. The light glowed like burning fire inside my eyes. My brain had barely recovered from the shock before a deep, gravelly voice greeted my ears. It shocked me. I knew that voice, I had heard it, but so long ago…

'Greetings, huntress. I see you have woken up; now come. You must meet our master, the master of a new golden age.' The voice was devoid of emotion, but that didn't stop me from recognising it. It had been so long that I had almost forgotten it.

'F… father?' I whispered in wonder. I had hoped he hadn't sided with the titans. But there seemed little other possibility now. Behind Atlas, a comparatively small demigod gasped in astonishment. Immediately, the Titan bent down grasped the demigod by the shoulder,

'No one is to know of this. Understand?' Atlas threatened.

The demigod with an eyepatch nodded mutely.

'Good.' Said Father. He then straightened up and cast one long, scrutinising glance at me. Then he turned around and said,

'Nakamura, bring her to the hall.' Atlas walked a little way down the corridor and disappeared into another tunnel.

The demigod glanced at me cautiously and approached the iron ring which fastened my restraints. I glared at him. Just before he unlocked the contraption, he turned towards me,

'Don't try to escape. There is nowhere you can go.' He said.

The truth of his words hit me like a brick. I did not know how to escape; But, I thought deviously, I _could_ try.

He opened the shackles and I immediately shot up to my feet. He was ready and brandished a celestial bronze sword, pointing it at me.

'Don't try it.' He said in quavering voice.

He was scared, I could hear it his voice. I quickly pulled up my old metal shackles and threw it at him as hard as I could. Without looking back, I rushed out through the entrance into a maze of tunnels leading in all directions. Knewing there was nothing else I could do, I randomly chose tunnels and ran, praying I would get to an exit.

After some time, I found light at the end of one tunnel. Bursting with relief, I burst through the opening. To my horror, I found Atlas and hundreds of monsters in a huge underground amphitheatre. In the centre was a golden sacrophagus with green mist hanging above it.

I turned back only to find an iron gate closing behind me.

'No, my dear hunter. You may not leave us so soon.' Atlas's evil voice boomed around the chamber.

'How… how did I get here?' I muttered in disbelief.

By some superhuman hearing, Atlas seemed to have heard me. He smirked.

'All roads lead to Rome. All the tunnels converge to this hall except for one. I took a chance leaving you with Nakamura and it seems to have paid off. I also have proof of his incompetence, thanks to you.' Atlas then stood up and the noice level of the monsters increased further.

'Lord Kronos.' Atlas intoned, addressing the sacrophagus. I gasped, surely that wasn't possible.

'Lord Kronos,' Atlas repeated in a louder voice,' we have brought the demigods!'

Suddenly the green wraith above the coffin wavered and dissapeared entirely. A nearby Lastrygonian giant leaped into the central arena, its eyes glowing gold.

'Show me.' It said in a commanding voice, emmiting power that should have been way beyond its capability.

Atlas bowed to him at once,

'Lord Kronos.' He said respectfully and waved his hands. Immediately a metal box was brought in from the sides. The metal box had four people behind its bars, all of them were blindfolded and had their faces covered with a mask. They were tightly bound with ropes and looked to be struggling, one especially was writhing constantly – though it did little good other than tire out the demigod.

'Any children of the big three?' Asked Kronos, his face expressionless.

'One, milord. Just as you asked.' Replied Atlas.

'Then why is it that I sense such little power emitting from all of them!?' Kronos demanded, his voice rising.

'What? No, no, milord.' Atlas said confusedly,' We have a son of Poseidon.'

Kronos looked at Atlas with calculating eyes,

'Which one is it? I have never seen such a weak son of Poseidon in all my immortal life. Is Poseidon in full health nowadays?'

Atlas stopped a second before replying,

'As far as I know; Yes, milord.' Atlas motioned to one of the guards to take out the demigod in question. The guard brought the most restless demigod before Kronos and retreated in a hurry, almost falling over its own feet.

'Free him.' Commanded Kronos.

'I'll do it myself.' Said Atlas and walked over to the demigod, cutting open the bounds with a handy knife.

The mask once opened revealed a very messy, sweaty and irritable Ethan Nakamura, complete with a scrawny build and eyepatch.

For a minute, nobody spoke. Atlas stayed silent, fearing the ire of Kronos. Kronos himself broke the silence,

'I will take my oath as the Titan of Time that _that_ weakling is no son of Poseidon. What have you to say for that, O great commander of my armies?'

'I… I…' Atlas stuttered, still looking at Ethan disbelievingly.

'What are you doing here?' Atlas accosted the scared half-blood. This seemed to scare Ethan even more who already had no idea what was going. A small squeak emmited from him. He seemed to be unable to speak.

Atlas looked at him even more angrily. Just as he was about to speak Kronos interrupted,

'Take him away. I do not have time for such things in my limited form right now. You have not been able to provide me with a suitable host, and now…' Kronos cut off mid-sentence. A look of intense concentration came into his eyes. Slowly, he turned around with a air of satisfaction. His eyes landed directly on me.

'Ah, what is this? You did not tell me about this half-blood, Atlas.' Kronos said in a meancing tone. He scrutinized me carefully. I shivered under the power of his gaze but met it with a fiery look.

'This half-blood, milord.' Started Atlas unsurely.' She… she was not supposed to be here.'

'She is powerful.' Said Kronos,' I even sense a hint of immortality in her. She would not have to… chance a dip in the river. After all, I would not need a host for long. There is only one problem, though…'.

Atlas looked like he did not want me to be the 'host'. He seemed a bit reluctant to agree with Kronos but eventually a resigned look came onto his face. He opened his moth to speak.  
But before he could say anything a big ruckus errupted among the monsters at the back of the amphitheatre. A few clouds of golden dust flew into the air and from its middle a huge hellhound jumped straight into the arena.

'How's life, Grandpa!?' Came a cheery voice from the rider on top of the hellhound. I recognised it immediately. My heart skipped a beat.

Percy Jackson had arrived.

 **A/N: REVIEW! Oh, interesting fact: I just noticed the whole chapter's without any line breaks or change in POV. Okay then, it won't be long before I post another chapter. Maybe you'll like to fill in the little box below till then? Thanks.**


	8. Deserted

**A/N: In case you missed it before, I have a small request for you to go and check out my only other story, 'The Tiara', if you're interested. If you're not, you shouldn't have read the former sentence. Just to clarify things, everybody is a year older than what they were in the books(except Thalia, duh). Percy is 14, almost 15. Annabeth is around the same. Theseus is quite a bit older (1 or 2 years). More at the end.**

Bianca POV

Where was Percy? The three of us had searched the whole museum for him but we could not find him anywhere. I knew time was being wasted but it was all just so perplexing. Of us, Annabeth looked the most irritated, ' _How did he vanish into thin air?_!' She kept muttering. We sat down to take a quick rest after a while. Suddenly I noticed Theseus stand up out of the corner of my eye. He looked alarmed, his eyes wide.

With his finger shaking, he pointed towards five skeletons who were approaching us.

'Sparti!' Theseus hissed in an urgent voice, 'Run!'

I was indignant, what demigods were we to run from every little thing that chased us? They were only skeletons, for gods' sake! I was disgusted at what a coward Theseus was. Then I noticed even Annabeth had got up to run, I was shocked. But looking back, Annabeth had always trusted Theseus more than anyone else I knew. She seemed to practically cling to every word he said.

Even then, I was unfazed. I looked at the skeletons, eager for my first challenge. The five bone warriors seemed vaguely puzzled as I pulled out my bow and pointed it at them. They suddenly adopted a more cautious stance and looked around, as if expecting another threat. Stupid them; there was only me. One of the skeletons approached me and started a little when my arrow hits its arm. Then with unimaginable speed it attacked me. I could barely defend myself with the bronze sword I had with me. My arm became full of gashes and blood started seeping out.

I was saved, as much as I hate admit it, by Theseus. His sword was a blur as it cut through the skeleton's bones. But the skeleton still continued to fight on, undeterred. It was steadily overpowering Theseus. Knowing that he was powerless to do anything more, he struck a particularly well-aimed blow, turned to me, shouted, 'RUN!' once again and took off. I followed him this time, bitterly thinking about the irony of the situation.

Annabeth joined us and we ran at full speed towards what looked to be a railway junction. But glancing back, the skeletons were stll hot on our trail. We would never be able to outrun them. Suddenly Theseus pushed us into a conveniently empty carriage and motioned for us to stay there. I, in keeping with my then rebellious spirit, would have never aqcuiesed to the inaction. But Annabeth held me back, restraining me with her strong arms. I was furious, what was this loyalty towards Theseus? Why should he sacrifice himself for us? – especially when that sacrifice would probably prove to be futile. I wriggled ceaselessly but I was unable to escape. I could not even see outside, the foolish demigod had closed the doors.

To my astonishement, after what seemed to be a long time, I noticed Theseus opening the doors to the compartement. His hair was a mess and one of his eyes was swollen and blue.

'What happened?' Asked Annabeth standing up, her eyes shining with pride. She was already sure of the answer.

'I… I took care of them.' Theseus answered tiredly and straightened himself, 'They won't trouble us anymore.'

I was more suspicious,

'How?' I demanded. Chase shot a scathing look at me. I ignored her. Theseus answered in much the same heroic but tired way,

'I had the help of a God. My sword turned into a different, darker metal which was able to harm the skeleton warriors. Once incapactitated, they didn't get up again.'

'But you still had to defeat them, didn't you?' Annabeth asked eagerly.

'Yes.' Theseus lowered his eyes modestly, but the tone of his voice suggested otherwise. It was clear he was a powerful and skilled demigod, but maybe not as much as he thought himself to be.

'So what do we do now?' I asked.

'We have to go West.' Theseus answered.

'How?'

Theseus shrugged.

We trudged outside of the musty carriage and looked around, thinking. In the corner of the yard a beggar in taterred clothes caught my attention. He was looking straight at us and when he noticed me walking towards him he flashed me a brilliant smile. Now I was sure this was no ordinary beggar. No beggar could have teeth as white this ones.

'Who are you?' I demanded.

'Fred.' The beggar answered, flashing me another blinding smile.

'Fred?' I repeated in confusion.

The beggar rolled his eyes.

'I'm Fred. You know, everybodys favourite sun.'

Now I was even more confused than before.

'What?!' I said.

By this time Annabeth and Theseus had joined me. Annabeth suddenly gasped, comprehension clear in her eyes.

'Apo-' She started before being cut off.

'Fred.' The beggar insisted, but the wink gave it away.

'Don't call me by that name right now.' He said, 'Zeus doesn't like me interfering with quests. But since you're saving my baby sister, I figured I had to help you some way. Take that train.' Fred pointed to his left and our eyes all went to a train which I was positive wasn't there before. When we looked back, Fred was gone and only a little note with ' _Good Luck'_ written on it was left behind.

We quickly boarded the already moving train(Sunwest Railways) and found it was full of luxury cars. I chose a Lamborghini while Annabeth took a Ferrari. Theseus settled down in a Range Rover beside the Ferrari. My eyes immediately started drooping, I was tired from all the exertion this day. Just as I had made myself sufficiently comfortable in the back seat of my car, a seemingly random thought came to my mind. Theseus had mentioned a God helping him and Apollo was a God. Wasn't it just possible the two were related?

In the distance, I heard two distinct voices of people talking. But I was too tired to worry about such things. The steady, pleasant motion of the train slowly lulled me off to sleep.

* * *

Next day I woke up to Annabeth slowly shaking me awake.

'Wake up, sleepyhead.' She said.

'What?' I murmured sleepily. But I was soon up. I looked around in interest. We were in the middle of a huge barren desert but there seemed to be a small town to the left. We made our way in that direction and before long we were there. We learned that we were in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Annabeth gasped,

'There's no way we could have travelled that far in one night.'

Theseus cracked a smile, 'Sunwest Railways. _Of course_.'

Annabeth shook her head and took on a more serious face.

'We need to get going. The Winter Solstice isn't much far away.' She said.

'I'll find out.' Theseus offered and ran off towards a nearby shop. After what seemed a very long time he came back.

Sorry guys,' He said, 'The man at the counter told us there's a bus station a few miles ahead in the next town. We just have to follow the road.'

'What took you so long?' I asked with an innocent face.

Theseus grimaced but didn't answer. He shot me another strange look before sprinting off to join Annabeth who had already gone ahead. I gazed at him curiously. I thought I was missing something here. I increased my speed and had soon caught up with them. There was a completely different atmosphere around them than the one I witnessed yesterday. Both Annabeth and Theseus seemed very comfortable with each.

They were behaving in a very friendly manner and jostling each other jokingly. Annabeth had a bright smile on her face and her grey eyes shone with mirth.

'Isn't it a lovely day?' She said. I looked at her, suddenly smiling, her laughter was infectious.

'Yeah, sure.' I answered, grinning, 'The blue sky, the barren land and the complete absence of people all round us - what's there not to like?'

'Yeah, I can't possibly imagine anything better. You know, this arid _desert_ climate. I just...' Suddenly Annabeth cut off. I had got the feeling she trying to elevate the glum mood that the prophecy had got us into. And then losing Percy after that. I think its safe to say we weren't in the best of spirits. But now, inexplicably, Annabeth underwent a complete reversal of emotions in that one tiny second. All the colour drained out of her face. I looked around anxiously, wondering if the Sparti had got here somehow. But no, we were alone.  
She turned to me with an expressionless face.

'Ummm Bianca. I'm feeling very...er... _very_ thirsty. Could you buy us a bottle from the nearest store?' She said, holding out a dollar. I looked at her, partially scared at the sudden reversal of mood. I thought of asking her about it, but ultimately decided against it.

'Bianca, could you get a bottle? _Please_.' Annabeth asked even more insistently, a hint of anger -or was it desperation - creeping into her voice. She pointed at a building which was a good way away from where we stood. There was also a long line in front of it. I internally scowled at the unfairness of it all. She could go and get it herself. And what Theseus doing there standing like an idiot?

Her eyes bore into mine. I felt my will breaking down and somewhat reluctantly agreed to get the water. I broke into a brisk jog and before long had got to the store. There was no way I could see Annabeth from the front of the shop. There was a small structure at the side of the shop and I had to round a corner to get to the front. So that part of the highway was hidden from view. I had just got to the shop when the crowd of people suddenly broke up, murmuring angrily.

'What happened?' I asked.

'They're out of water. Next stock will come early next morning.' Said a well-built man with a gruff voice.

I walked back disgruntled. I had just got there only to be sent back immediately and hadn't even got the water. Serves Annabeth right, I thought scathingly. I rounded the corner quickly, a bit eager to break the 'sad' news. Of, how cruel fate can be...  
I got stupefied instead of me surprising them.

What I saw was something I had never _ever_ expected. I couldn't believe my eyes. In fact, I had to get closer before I could be completely sure.

There was Annabeth, her arms around Theseus, kissing him like the world was about to end tomorrow.

 **A/N: How many of you saw that coming? Oh well, I'm a little miffed I got zero reviews in the earlier two chapters. So I've decided I'll post the next chapter only once I get 8 more reviews or after six weeks, whichever comes earlier.  
Just kidding... But to be honest, I really felt like doing that. Next chapter will be up in six.**


	9. Race against Time

**A/N: Its been more than a couple of weeks, I know. Stuff came up. But I finally found the time to write this extra-long chapter. That's it for now.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing which is not mine.**

 _Earlier:  
_ _What I saw was something I had never ever expected. I couldn't believe my eyes. In fact, I had to get closer before I could be completely sure._

 _There was Annabeth, her arms around Theseus, kissing him like the world was about to end tomorrow._

 _Now:  
_ 'What's up with you two?!' Bianca exclaimed.

'What does it look like?' Shot back Theseus with a smirk.

Before Bianca could say anything else Annabeth suddenly spoke up with a guilty look on her face.

'Its… its not like that…. exactly.' She said. Theseus gave her an incredulous look.

'It's just… the prophecy, Bianca.' Annabeth continued, ' Haven't you realised it? This might be the last chance I get. The very last. This is the land without rain.'

'So?' Asked Bianca.

'One of us is going to die. Here; and soon.'

* * *

Percy POV

Okay… so where was I? Oh right, about to get myself embarassed in front of Zöe. Not to say Kronos, Atlas and a few hundred monsters. No pressure.

'How's life, Grandpa?' I said cheerily, jumping into the arena in a dramatic entrance on top of an over-friendly hellhound I had met earlier. Their moment of disorientment allowed me to take in my surroundings. I was in the middle of a large amphitheatre with gold and bronze border decorations, torches hanging all around, and surrounded by monsters and two titans. I saw Zöe on the left, staring at me with amazement and something else I couldn't quite understand.

'Jackson.' Growled the Lastrygonian/Kronos. I immediately uncapped Riptide and faced him. I looked at him curiously, who was this 'Kronos'?

'Hey there, Bigfeet! Who do you think you are?' I taunted him. I have often found that the best way of irritating others is by getting under their skin. But this was the first time I regretted it.

'I am the Titan of Time, Wielder of the Scythe, the most feared enemy of the Gods: KRONOS!' Bellowed Kronos. I felt a sudden wave of power roll towards me. The Lastrygonian Giant's eyes glowed golden and seemed to push me backward. I desperately held my feet on the ground.

My insides trembled at the power. I should have run away. But then I went and did an incredibly stupid thing.

I put on a brave face and attacked with Riptide. Kronos seemed genuinely shocked for a moment before he struck back. But I still seemed to be gaining the upper hand as the Lastrygonian clumsily made a few strikes – it only had its hands, after all. Just when it seemed I could win, Kronos snapped.

'ENOUGH!' He shouted and with one insanely poweful strike I was swept off my feet and flew through the air into the side wall of the arena. The wall cracked under the pressure and I slowly fell to the ground.

The crowd cheered and I saw drops of blood fall in front of my eyes. My vision slightly faltered. I lay on the ground, bleeding and bruised with at least a couple of broken ribs. The din around me made me feel lightheaded. Four years of training at camp demolished in a single strike. It was a humbling experience.

At that moment I think I might have passed out if not for a very wet nose nudging my face. The sheer wetness instantly made me awake. I cracked open my eyes and managed a slight smile. My hellhound was standing in front of me like a huge dog with its tongue hanging out.

'What's up, old thing?' I croaked.

The hellhound couldn't speak. She just stared at me and back to the arena.

'What the matter?' I asked.

She just gave a little bark and looked at me sadly. Then she again looked back at the battlefield.

'I can't go back now, buddy. I'm too weak to be able to do anything now.' I said, thinking I got what she was trying to say.

She just barked a bit louder and tugged at my shirt insistently. She looked back at the arena again.

This time I followed her eyesight to find not Kronos or Atlas, but Zöe...

Of course! She was the reason I had come here in the first place. Not to pick fights with any Titans or giants; I came here to rescue Zöe. I just _couldn't_ have left without even trying to help her. I couldn't.

And so I came here.

And now I had gone and forgotten about her. I looked at her intently. Her black hair was messed up and covered her face in parts, slightly obscuring her onyx eyes which shone with determination. But she wasn't doing anything. She was just standing there, it seemed something was holding her back from moving. She still wasn't … _free_.

I felt the strength slowly flowing back into my muscles. The adrenaline came back into my veins. I stood up straight and clambered onto my hellhound. My mind was crystal clear. At that moment, I knew exactly what I had to do.

Ignoring the rest of the arena, I made a beeline for her. Suddenly I saw a javelin approaching us from the side. My hellhound incredibly managed to jump right over it, _avoiding it by inches_.

In no time I was beside Zöe and cutting open her bonds. I pushed her onto the hellhound and got on myself. Courtesy of my ADHD(curse it), I noticed a swarm of monsters approaching us from behind. That was the last I saw of the arena.

One moment we were there and the next moment we were in the dark. I got a nauseous feeling in the stomach and landed safely in a dimly lit cave. Suddenly, all the exertion overcame me and I collapsed into a complete deadly oblivion.

Zöe POV

After Percy entered the arena, events went by like a blur for me. Conflicting emotions wrestled inside my mind. My admiration for his courage fought with my anger at his stupidity. And then he had somehow miraculously got us to this place, wherever we were. Or maybe it was the hellhound who got us here. She was peacefully sleeping by the look of it at a side what looked like a small cave.

Percy had done the seemingly impossible and now he was… dead. What!? No, he wasn't dead. Then why was he lying there like somebody who was? I quickly rolled him over and checked his pulse. It was faint, but it was there. It also seemed like it was slowly fading. No, I couldn't let that happen. He had just saved my life; he couldn't just die like that. Boys weren't supposed to sacrifice themselves for girls whom they barely knew.

I slightly panicked even though I had dealt with situations far worse that this. But this time somehow, my mind started thinking irrational thoughts.

 _What if I fail to save him? What if he dies? How will I live with that? But he's just a boy. He saved my life! But I like h…what?! Yeah, I like hunting, that what I was thinking. He could be dead by now because I was thinking instead of trying to save him!_

That last thought snapped me out of my mindless reverie. I quickly rolled him over to a place where there was a little more light and checked his pulse again. Still there…just. _I can do this_ , I thought.

Steeling my nerves, I took a good look at his face. Oh my gods, it was almost disfigured. Blood covered almost his entire face ad one his hands was strangely bent. The blood trickled down his shirt. Without a second thought, I tore open his shirt and examined the damage. Definitely a couple of broken ribs, I concluded, along with several minor injuries all along his muscular torso.

' _You stupid… stupid boy_.' I remonstrated as I trickled a bit of a mixture of nectar and ambrosia down his throat. A handy mixture in more ways than one which I had safely hidden in a place where no one would even dare to search.

But even then his condition did not improve. If anything, it grew worse. His face grew whiter and his pulse slowed down to almost nothing.

' _You stupid… stupid, idiotic boy_.' A lone tear fell down from my cheek. I couldn't believe it. I, Zöe Nightshade, was crying for a boy. A boy who would probably be dead in a few minutes, at that.

I kept forcing more of my concotion down his throat. It didn't work. Then it suddenly struck me, water! He was a son of Poseidon. If water couldn't heal him, nothing could. I desperately listened for the faint trickle of any underground stream. Luck was with me. I heard the sound of flowing water, and not far away. I quickly got Percy near the water and with a final prayer, pushed him into the small creek. The water splashed up and wet my face and my clothes. I didn't care. I waited expectantly for one… two… three… four… five minutes. Then I could wait no longer.

I plunged my hand into the cool water and put my finger on his wrist. It was there! There was a slight beat which kept getting stronger by the minute. I had succeeded! Percy would be fine.

And so would I.

 **A/N: Couple of surprises in the coming chapters. Anybody who can guess them gets a cookie from me. Also, I won't take as long as I did this time. Please review.**


	10. So Near but Yet so Far

**A/N: So once again, I'm back with another chapter. I'm so excited for the next few. The story's just beginning to get warmed up. Oh, and thanks a lot for the 100 follows. This is my first fic, so it means a lot to me.**

Percy POV  
I woke up to a strange weight on my shoulder and a slight ticklish sensation on my neck. Opening one eye, I tilted my neck very carefully and managed to look to my side. With some apprehension I noticed Zöe had fallen fast asleep on my shoulder sometime last night. Last night… I didn't remember much except for having a terrible fight with Kronos and then getting here. I must have become unconscious then although how Zöe managed to get to my shoulder was a different matter. It was quite a nice, warm feeling and I didn't feel like getting up just then.

Sadly, my pleasure was short lived. Barely a few long minutes later, I felt the weight on my shoulder change and the strands of hair shift on my neck. I quickly closed my eyes and feigned that I was still asleep. I felt Zöe get up suddenly and heard a slight sigh of relief. A few more minutes later she nugded the side of my head. In keeping with my act, I didn't move. But involuntary, my eye twitched. I don't think Zöe noticed, but the shaking suddenly stopped. Seconds later, a huge amont of water splashed on my face. This time I couldn't help it. Spluterring, I opened my eyes and looked across at Zöe with an annoyed face.

'Why did you have to do that?' I accosted her.

She shrugged. 'You're a son of Poseidon. Don't you like water?'

'Of course I do. But that doesn't mean I like waking up with my face in a bucket of cold water.' I answered.

'To be honest, that was just a handful of water. But you might be right, though. I'm sure there are more, better… _different.._ ways to wake up.' She had a sly look on her face as she said this and was staring at me intently. I did my best to keep my face neutral and expressionless.

'I guess.' I answered in what I hoped was a nonchalant manner.

'So what are we supposed to do now?' Zöe asked, changing the topic, seemingly satisfied. I mentally heaved a sigh of relief.

'I don't know.' I answered honestly. 'But I guess I could get the hellhound and get back to camp.'

'We can't leave Artemis!' Zöe shot back.

'So, its 'we' now, is it?' I said in a slightly surprised tone. Zöe looked at me murderously.

'Of course its we, you idiotic boy! Who know what other mess you might get into without me to save you?' Her voice slightly faltered as she said this and for the first time that day I got a good look at her face. I could faintly make out dried tear marks on the smooth skin of her cheek. I wondered why she had been crying. Was Artemis actually in that much of a trouble? Whatever the reason, Zöe was clearly very much affected by it.

'Technically, I saved y…' I tried to point out but Zöe's glare was enough to convince me to stop.

'All right.' I said quietly. 'I'll come with you. We it is then.' My voice was decisive and controlled; but inside a small part of me was jumping with joy. Zöe wanted me to come with her! I was ecstatic.

'W _e_ it is.' A pause, 'Get to work then.' Zöe answered in her characteristic, no-nonsense way. But her smile at the end gave away her true feelings.

I quickly nudged 'Mr's O' Leary', as I had decided to call my hellhound, and gave her a long pat on the head. She licked me in delight and got up and stretched her legs. I climbed on with Zöe right behind me.

'Where to?' I asked her.

'San Francisco.' She answered.

'Get going, buddy.' I told Mrs O' Leary and she took a huge leap into the darkest shadow. This time, I was ready.

* * *

Bianca POV  


 _'One of us is going to die. Here; and soon'_ Annabeth's voice reverberated in my head. My mind kept going over all the possibilities and the possible repercussions if one us really did go to underworld. I prayed it would be anyone but me. Self-centered, I know. But I couldn't imagine myself dying in this deserted, arid place with Nico back at camp.

All three of us walked in silence, Annabeth's statement had put quite a damper on the conversation. Finally, in the distance we saw what looked like a huge pile of junk piled up in the middle of nowhere. As we approached I heard Annabeth draw her breathe in sharply.

'Heaphasatus's Junkyard. The Junkyard of the Gods.' She said. We could also see a town in sight on the other side of the junkyard.

'We should go around.' I suggested.

Annabeth gave me a dirty look.

'In case you haven't noticed, we're short on time. The winter solistice is tomorrow. Besides, its just a junkyard. I doubt a pile of garbage could harm us.'

 _Wisely said, daughter of Athena_ , I thought scathingly but still followed her through the mountains of junk wondering if evil trashcans with plastic swords were actually true or mythical.

We silently clambered our way through the weird looking giant size machinery and other stuff.

'Don't touch anything.' Annabeth warned after awhile.

I looked at her scathingly.

'I can't help it if I have to climb over these things.' I said.

'I meant don't take anything.' Annabeth shot back.

'Why not?' I heard Theseus ask immediately.

'This stuff is here for a reason – they're defective. It belongs to the Gods. Besides, I doubt they'll let just anybody wander in and take what they wanted.'

Before Theseus could answer the sound of clanging metal came to our ears. We turned around.

'Damn right they won't.' I whispered. In front of me rose a huge automaton who looked like he wanted nothing else but to kill us right now.

'Talos! Run!' Shouted Annabeth, 'Nope, its too small. It has to be a prototype.' She quickly added in a voice I could barely hear. I almost shouted at the know-it-all. That monstrosity, _too small_?! What was wrong with that girl?

But taking my current situation at hand, I decided to run. I wouldn't be able to shout at her if I was dead. No, I couldn't die.

But soon it seemed we were fighting a losing battle. That automaton's one step matched about fifty of our own. It leisurely ambled towards us, knowing we had no chance to escape.

And much to my astonishment, the insuffurable Theseus volunteered to hold back Talos while we escaped. This was the second time in two days he was willing to fight alone so that we could live. Annabeth tried, like really, really, _really_ tried to convince him to run.

But he was not to be deterred. Slowly, Talos came closer. Now Theseus was willing to wait no longer. He charged at the monster with an unfamiliar sword and stabbed its metal leg. To my astonishment, the sword went clear through the metal plates and wires. The sword had a strangely ethereal glow to it. Was that what Theseus had picked up in the junkyard? He slashed at the automaton as fast and hard as he could, nimbly escaping the monster's confused blows. Large holes appeared in the monster's armour as even we plucked up the courage to deter it by throwing whatever else we could find on the ground at it.

'We can do it!' Annabeth shouted through the din of metal against metal. I grinned back at her to show my support.

Eventually, after what seemed like ages, the light in the machine's eyes dimmed. It grew sluggish and eventually stopped moving. Still alive, Theseus turned back and lifted his sword in victory. His sweat and dirt stained face grinned at us in relief. But that was the last we saw of him.

'Look behind you!' Annabeth shouted.

But it was too late. Talos, no longer functional, fell on his knees and collapsed with its entire weight on top of Theseus.

 **A/N: Oops, my bad. But what do you think of it? REVIEW!**


	11. The Garden

**A/N: I got (hopefully) good news for all you readers. You can expect faster updates from now because its summer (where I live).**

 _Earlier:  
'Look behind you!' Annabeth shouted._

 _But it was too late. Talos, no longer functional, fell on his knees and collapsed with its entire weight on top of Theseus._

 _Now:  
_ The prophecy had come true.

Its hard for me to even think about it. Annabeth's sobs as she pulled at the automaton. Me standing a bit away trying to hold back my tears but knowing beyond doubt that nobody could have survived the 1000 tons of metal which fell on Theseus. There was nothing we could have done to prevent it. But if only Theseus had stood a few paces away on either side, he would have been beside us, alive and well and happy. But we couldn't dwell on it for too long, Olympus needed us. Dusk was fast approaching as Annabeth relented with a determined look on her face.

We 'borrowed' a car from the nearby town and sped off with Annabeth at the wheel. She clearly didn't know how to drive but somehow we got away with a few minor bumps and scratches. We dumped the car as soon as we approached the city traffic – there was no point in taking a risk of being held up, especially when we were short on time.

We walked at a brisk pace and caught a taxi from the nearest spot we could find.

'Where are we going?' I asked her.

'Mount Tamalpais.' She answered shortly.

Her reply was discouraging but I couldn't stay uncommunicative for so long. Theuseus's absence had created an atmosphere of unresolved tension between us and it was slowly getting hard to breathe.

'Did you know him?' I ventured a question. To my surprise, Annabeth responded like somebody had electrocuted her.

'Know whom? What makes you think I knew him?' Her eyes were gimlets in the partial darkness of the vehicle.

'Jeez, Annabeth; calm down. I meant him – you know, _Theseus_.' I said.

'You still didn't answer my other question. What makes you think I knew him?' Annabeth quickly responded.

I was caught a bit off-guard by the sudden aggresiveness. I did my best to stay calm, burning with curiosity, and answered carefully.

'I…well. You know, both you seemed so… _so_ familiar with each other.' I said. Annabeth stayed tense for a moment longer before sinking down back into her seat.

'Yeah,' She answered indifferently,' I… I knew him.' She stole a quick glance at my face. I looked at her quizically.

'Well then, spill! So many questions. Why didn't you tell me before? How long have known him? Why didn't you tell _anyone_ before? Why were you so distant with him initially?' I said, determined to get to the bottom of the matter.

'Its nothing.' Annabeth started,' He was just one of the few demigods I got to know before I got to camp. That's all there is to the story. I was distant with him because I hadn't been sure it was really him. Anything else?' She had an irritated look on her face.

I was almost satisfied but not quite.

'There is, actually. You say you met him before he came to camp. So then _why_ didn't he c…'

'Stop, Bianca.' Annabeth interrupted with a pained look on her face. I looked at her, annoyed. She continued, 'I know what you were going to ask. Just let it be, okay?'

This was so completely unfair! I continued regardless,

'But why can't…'.

' _Don't,_ Bianca. Just shut up, please.'

I shut up. There wasn't really much else I could do. Annabeth clearly wasn't going to tell me and whatever it was – it clearly disturbed her. But there were so any loopholes in her story. I filed the question away in my mind for a later time when we wouldn't be on dangerous quests with a time limit whose failure could spell disaster for the Western Civilisation.

We got down from the taxi in silence and I watched on as Annabeth snapped her fingers at the taxi driver as he asked for the fare. Instantly, a dazed look came on his face as he thanked Annabeth for the 'generous tip'.

I was about to protest at this misuse of power but one look at Annabeth's face convinced me to do otherwise.

'We don't have time for this, Bianca.' She said.

'But I didn't even say anything!' I protested.

'Your face said otherwise.' She said with a smirk and strode up the hill.

'Twilight. Perfect.' I heard her say. With a feeling of discontent, I followed her towards the Garden of Hesperides.

To my astonishement and complete horror, we found the place as if a complete storm had wrecked through it, destroying everything in its path. There was no sight of the famed Hesperides and the leaves and bushes were completely bare and disfigured. There were large holes in the ground and the Golden Apples lay unprotected except for the sorry sight of a one headed dragon who patheticaly shot a thin flame towards us.

'What _happened_ here?' Annabeth said, kneeling down and picking up some of the Earth. It trickled down through her fingers.

'Ashes.' She mutterred.

'Some monster perhaps?' I suggested.

'No mere monster could cause such damage.' Annabeth said dismissively,' Whatever did this was powerful… and ruthless. No don't try.' Annabeth had caught my longing gaze towards the Apples of Immortality.

'Anybody who did this would not be stupid enough to leave the apples here, ungaurded for anyone to become immortal. No.' She said.

I didn't argue, knowing she was probably correct.

'We should go, I think.' Annabeth got up, dusting her hands.

'Should we?' I shot back. 'Whatever did this is probably up there.' I looked at the faintly shining top of the mountain.

Annabeth looked unsure.

'We need more information.' She said,' I can only think of very few monsters who could do this. A God could also, but why would they?'

'For that matter, why would any monster?' I asked.

'Why would anybody?!' Annabeth clutched her hair,' They could have come here for the Apples, but the Apples are still here or… or yes! I got it.' She exclaimed.

'What?' I asked eagerly.

'This mountain has the Apples and it has Atlas holding the sky at the top. Atlas must be free, since the prophecy said Artemis is in 'chains'. So whoever came here, must be here for Atlas.' Annabeth breathed in sharply.

'We need to go.' She took my hand and pulled me to feet.

'Why?!' I protested.

Annabeth looked at me with stormy gray eyes.

'Because we can't let Artemis hold up the sky forever. Atlas has to do it. If Atlas dies, then everything within 200 miles gets destroyed. You know Zeus would prefer a city getting scaled than let his daughter bear the brunt of the sky.' She said.

'He could get someone else to do it.' I said weakly.

'Only a God or a Titan has the power to lift it for long periods of time. Now go, time is getting wasted.' Annabeth gave me a slight push towards the path.

I relented with a heavy heart. But before we walked even a few steps, a voice from behind stopped us.

'Stop.' It said,' Don't go.'

I whirled around in delight. I knew that voice. It belonged to…

'Percy.' Annabeth said,' What are you doing here?'

'Am I late?' He grinned cheeckily. A swift hand shot out from behind him and swatted his head.

'Zöe!' Percy exclaimed, rubbing his head,' That hurt.'

'Serves you right.' Zöe said, coming into view from behind him. My heart lifted a little more. Finally, someone I could talk to other than Annabeth.

'Do you know who did this?' I asked timidly. Truth be told, Zöe scared me a bit. She was always so... needlessly irritable.

'Did what?' She asked. I felt a bit irritated. What sort of a question was that?

'Did what? Destroy this Garden, of course.' I barely restrained myslef from shouting. Zöe looked at me sorrowfully.

'Poor girl.' She said. I could almost feel my self-control breaking. What was going on here?

Before I could actually explode, Zöe said something which caught my attention,

'Percy, do that thing you did.' She said.

Percy nodded and approached me. He put a finger in front of my eyes.

'Watch it.' He instructed. I watched the tip of his finger as it went further and further from my eyes. Suddenly he clicked his fingers and took it out of my sight. I was greeted by the sight of a fire-breathig dragon right in front of my eyes. I turned back, screaming with terror.

When I again looked at the place, it had transformed back to 'normal', I could say. There were no signs of any destruction. It had become a peaceful, well-maintained garden with a friendly fire-breathing dragon who took absolutely no notice of us.

Percy went and did the same thing with Annabeth.

'Wow.' She said as soon as she looked back.

'What's going on?' Annabeth asked once her mind had finished processing the change in scenery.

Zöe sighed,

'Hard to say why. But there only one person who could have done this.'

'Who?'

'Only one way to find out.' Zöe said with a slight smile on her face,' Figure it out yourself, daughter of Athena.'

With that, she turned her back to us and began the ascent up the hill.

Percy looked at us sheepishly,

'Sorry guys. She's just like that sometimes.'

I lifted an eyebrow at him.

'Isn't she?'

 **A/N: One correct guess to the identity of the perpetrator and I'll update this story the very next day. I may or may not have already written the next chapter(Hint: Its not Kronos). Review!**


	12. On the Summit

**A/N: YES! Finally. We arrive at Mount Orthyrs. I want to thank all you readers for giving me the motivation to get here. As you already know, your guesses,** **which were mostly Hecate, was incorrect. Read on.**

 _3rd person POV  
_ Percy looked forlornly at the group ahead, and then back at the Garden. Instantly a feeling of despair washed over him. But he strengthened his nerves. Some things had to be done and defeating Atlas was one of them.

He walked ahead with a reluctant step but then quickly caught up with the group. Soon they were at the top. The first thing that caught their eyes was the newly reformed base of the Titans. The palace was no longer destroyed and frowned down at them in its magesty as if daring them to destroy it again.

Under the sky was none other than… Luke Castellan.

'LUKE!' Annabeth shouted with anger and astonishement. Her eyes grew wider as she purposefully strode towards him. She slapped him right on the cheek with such force that a small trickle of blood began to flow down from his lips.

'What's going on?' Zöe called out to the two. 'Where's Artemis?'

Nobody replied to her. By now everybody had gathered around Luke.

'How could you do this to me, Luke?' Annabeth was saying.

'I… I well…' Luke faltered and hung his head down. Whether it was from the strain of the sky or shame one could not tell.

'What's going on?!' Bianca echoed Zöe's sentiment, only more forcefully. The frustration in her voice came out. She had become tired of always knowing less than the people around her. For the first time, she got a proper response.

Luke waved a hand in front of his face and snapped his fingers. Involuntarily a gasp escaped from Bianca's mouth. It was followed by identical looks of astonishement on two other faces. They looked at the place where Luke's face had been.

Theseus' face grinned back at them.

He snapped his fingers again and he was back to Luke once more. Instantly pieces began falling into place in Bianca's mind. Annabeth's earlier attachement, her anger on seeing Luke, the conversation in the taxi, his extraordinary skills in combat – they all made sense now. He always defeated the monsters because he was on the same side _as_ the monsters.

'You TRAITOR!' Bianca spat in Luke's face.

'No, I'm not a traitor.' Luke said with fire in his eyes, 'I promised to help you to get here, which I did. Otherwise, I never swore loyalty to Olympus.'

'You're still a traitor.' Bianca repeated,' Only you would hold the sky so that Atlas could run free.'

Luke didn't reply.

Percy lifted his chin, 'Where's Atlas?' He said.

Luke raised his head but still gave no answer. Zöe pulled out a knife and threatingly pointed it towards him,

' _Where_ are Artemis and Atlas?' She said in her most threatening voice. Luke's eyes grew slightly wider but he still remained silent. Just as Zöe took another step towards him a voice boomed out from behind her,'  
'Daddy is here, sweetheart.'

Zöe swirled around in anger.

'You're not my father!' She shouted.

 _'I am your father._ ' Atlas grinned evilly at her. Beside him, propped up against a boulder, lay the furiously writhing figure of Artemis bound, quite literally, in chains which were glowing with a faint silvery sheen.

Percy surveyed the situation before him with worry. It was scary how Atlas had managed to creep up so quietly behind them. But now the problem was to get him under the sky and free Artemis. She had to be freed. Someone had to distract Atlas so that he could get to Artemis and cut her chains with Riptide. He looked back at the Titan. Atlas was engaged in a furious verbal battle with Zöe.

'You're not fit to rule anyplace, let alone Olympus. Kronos is only using you to overthrow the Gods! You won't have any power after he is done!' Zöe shouted at him.

'Hmmm… that's what Kronos thinks.'

A feeling of despair crept around the group. Wasn't enough going on already without Titan politics also?

Atlas continued,' When I am done, I will be the supreme ruler. And speaking of power, haven't you seen what I did to your Garden?' He taunted Zoe.

'You did nothing! That was just the mist which you probably got Hecate to do for you. Percy showed me how it actually is.'

'Percy huh?' Atlas said contemplatively, 'Then how come nobody stopped you from coming here?'

Zöe words got stuck in her throat, 'They just _didn't_.' She said defiantly.

'You know that's not true. Someone used the mist and that someone wasn't Hecate.'

Zöe remained silent as its implications slowly sunk into her.

'Percy?' She said, looking around for him.

A forlorn Percy shimmered into view as he removed a certain invisibility cap from head. His sword clanked uselessly against Artemis's chains. They didn't make a scratch.

'You foolish boy!' Artemis shouted at him,' You think I wouldn't have already escaped if it were this easy? Only Olympian Silver, Heaphasatus' special creation, can cut these chains!'

Percy looked cluelessly at the moon goddess. Then he looked at Atlas. A sudden realization struck him that along with Zöe, Atlas could also see him.

With a desperate face, he charged towards Atlas with Riptide, hoping to surprise Atlas by attacking him first. Atlas halted his progress by bringing his massive spear down in front of Percy.

'You truly are foolish.' Atlas intoned,' Don't you know immortals can'not harm a hero until the hero attacks them first?'

Percy face's was a multitude of emotions ranging from disbelief to determination. Now he had to fight Atlas and trust someone else to do his job.

Free Artemis!' He shouted towards Annabeth and Bianca. 'Olympian Silver!'

'What's that?' Annabeth shouted back.

'Its silver!' Percy shouted back before hurriedly bringing Riptide in front of his face to block a strike from Atlas. He rolled to the ground and sprung to his feet in front of the Titan, ready for the fight of his life. Atlas charged at him with his spear. Percy sidestepped, and managed to get a small cut on the Titan's.

'You'll have to better than that if you want to defeat me!' Atlas bellowed before again landing a heavy blow just where Percy had been standing seconds before.

Annabeth watched on with amazement and helplessness. What could she do? She had only one clue, that is Olympian Silver which could possibly cut Artemis's chains. Her Athena-like brain sarted thinking faster than ever, where could she get such a weapon? Suddenly it struck her.

Carefully, she walked near to Artemis and picked up her Invisibility cap. She donned it and ran with light steps towards Luke. She held her breathe as she stealthily put her hand in the long scabbard hanging from Luke's trousers and pulled out a sword. It was just the sword she wanted.

It was the one Luke had used against the automaton Talos with such effect. Sadistically, still rankling at Luke's deception, she made a small cut on Luke's arm as she retreated further away with the sword. Luke could only smile at the place she was despite her being invisible. Annabeth quickly moved away and hurried towards Artemis.

The sword shone bright silver against the glow of the stars as it cut through Artemis's chains. Artemis nodded at Annabeth as a bow materialized in her hand out of thin air. She shot an arrow with a loud twang as it raced towards Atlas and drove deep into his skin. Atlas gave out a loud cry and charged at Percy with more vigour, intent on finishing him off early so that he could deal with the larger threat.

Percy, who had got through Atlas's defense multiple times, was caught unawares. The sudden aggression unsettled him and sheer might of Atlas's blows started taking a toll on him. Just as Atlas was aiming to finish him off with a final strike of his spear, someone pushed him aside and then tried to move out of the spear's path but somehow caught the flat of the spear.

Percy, winded from the push, frantically got back to his feet to face Atlas only to find the Titan engaged in fierce combat with the moon goddess. Atlas looked to be gaining the upper hand before Zöe joined in with her mistress. She furiously pounded arrows against towards him.

Atlas glared at her,

'NO!' He shouted as he swept a huge hand towards Zöe and sent her flying towards the rocks. Time seemed to slow down as she helplessly fell on to the ground.

Artemis's manner suddenly changed as she saw her lieutenant thrown aside. She became more aggressive and fierce. She gracefully avoided the Titan's strikes and kept shooting arrows at him and slashing with her knives. Her flurry of attacks was relentless. Percy could only watch on with awe. Suddenly, as Atlas charged with his spear, Artemis caught hold of the end and pivoted Atlas to where Luke was holding up the sky. The Titan's momentum pushed away Luke as Atlas screamed with anger of being forced under his millenia-long burden again.

Luke rolled away to the side, but Percy had eyes only for Zöe. He rushed to her side and cradled her face in his hands.

'Zöe? _Zöe?_ Are you still here?' He asked desperately, a huge lump forming in his throat. When she did not reply for several seconds, Percy felt his heart might just break. Suddenly, she reached out and caught his hand in her own.

Zöe cracked open an eyelid,

'I'll… I'll be fine. Look… look at Bianca.' She said in a strained whisper, and let go of his hand.

 **A/N: I'm going to stop right here so that the chapter doesn't become too long. Also, I'm pretty fond of leaving mini-cliffhangers behind - some of you might be able to relate. I'll be interested to know how many of you actually saw Luke coming. I left plenty of clues along the way. On another note, h** **ow was the chapter?**

 **Anyways, the prophecy will be completed in the next update. Hope you have a nice week.**


	13. Holding on

**A/N: So I'm back again with another new chapter. I've a rather dour announcement to make so I decided to defer it till the end of the chapter. Till then, hope you enjoy reading.**

Everybody rushed to Bianca's side. She was clearly in a worse state than Zöe. Her face was ashen as she struggled to fight some inner pain. Some bones looked strangely disjoint.

'No, don't touch me.' She pleaded as Artemis drew near her. Artemis seemed miffed, but relented nonetheless.

A tear slid down her face as she looked up at the stars.

'Percy!' She called out. 'Promise,' she coughed a little,' promise me you won't blame yourself. None of this was your fault.'

Percy couldn't bring himself to reply. It was clear that he disagreed.

'It was my choice.' Bianca continued,' I chose to take Atlas's blow; if only because I knew you were the better fighter.'

'No, Bianca. You don't understand.' Percy said softly,' I swore to keep you safe.'

'You couldn't have done any better.' Bianca gave him a wry grin, 'You weren't near enough, for one thing.'

'But this time I _was_.' Percy protested.

'Enough of all this talk.' Artemis raised her voice, clearly not prepared to let a girl die in front of her without doing anything about it.

'No Artemis, you can't'. Bianca raised her hands above her head as the goddess approached.

'Why won't you let me try?' Artemis asked in exasperation.

'I am a child of Hades. I know when death approaches.'

With that final word, she let her eyes close, never to open again. Artemis could only watch in disbelief.

The heavy silence was broken by a quiet sob from Annabeth. The silence stretched on for longer but this time a piercing cry pentrated through its thick walls.

It came from behind the group where an injured Zöe lay ungaurded. The three were met with Luke wielding a knife in his hands and as they watched him thrust it straight towards Zöe before being intercepted by Percy in a heartbeat. Percy could only redirect the knife towards Zöe shoulder as it drove deep into it. Percy quickly wrenched Luke's hand away before dealing him with a flurry of punches. Artemis made the knife come out of Zöe's shoulder. Luke soon lay near the edge of the cliff as Percy fought with a blinding fury. Luke slowly edged closer to the precipice as Percy drew Riptide. Just as Percy came closer, Luke let go of the edge and let himself fall towards the rocks below.

Percy struggled to believe what he saw but convinced himself he could do nothing more. He rushed towards Zöe. Her upper arm bleeded freely as Artemis sent a steady stream of silver pulses of power into it.

'I can't do anything.' She said desperately,' It won't stop. That boy used Olympian Silver. Its sucking at her immortality. She'll bleed to death this way.'

Already Zöe's face seemed ten shades whiter. Her eyes were closed and her features motionless.

A crazy idea came into Percy's head,

'Then take away her immortality. That'll stop the bleeding, won't it?' He said.

'It doesn't work like that, boy.'

Artemis dreaded the idea of losing her oldest hunter and couldn't bring herself to think about Percy's idea.

' _Try it.'_ Percy insisted, 'Would you prefer she die like this or on her own terms?'

Artemis hesitated before shooting a murderous glance at Percy,

'You better hope this works, boy. Else Tartarus won't be able to save you from me.'

Percy only nodded, his eyes focused only on Zöe.

Artemis put her hand in front of Zöe face and murmured a few words which ended with, ' _And I release you from my service._ '

A faint glowing silver ball of light lifted from Zöe's head and suddenly burst away in all directions. The bleeding stopped immediately.

Artemis chanted a few more words as Zöe breathing became steady.

'She will be fine.' She said, standing up, 'I must call my chariot. I am already late for the council meeting.'

She walked away towards the centre of the summit leaving the three alone. Percy was right by Zöe's side as her eyes slowly fluterred open. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. A sudden wave of euphoria washed over him as Zöe got up to her feet.

Zöe slowly turned towards him and gave him a smile full of meaning. Her eyes lit up and Percy thought she had never looked more beautiful even though she had just weathered a near-death battle. Zöe stepped closer.

'I heard what you said.' She said with a small blush on her face. Percy still couldn't believe his eyes. She was actually alive!

'I don't really know how I can repay you.' Zöe continued, 'I've never owed a debt to a boy.'

'Easy.' Percy heard himself saying. Going with an impulse, he drew closer and softly kissed Zöe on the lips. Zöe instinctively drew away, letting out a small gasp. But miliseconds later, just as Percy was feeling devastated, she reciprocated with an equal fervour. Percy closed his eyes for one blissful moment before Zöe again pulled apart, blushing furiously. Percy had a silly look on his face as he felt his face getting redder.

Suddenly Artemis said,

'The chariot's here. Get on. I'll make one exeption for you boy, since you saved Zöe.' Her voice rung out.

The couple immediately looked at each other in shock. How much had Artemis seen?

'She didn't see anything.' Interjected Annabeth, smiling,' She was busy with the chariot.'

The three got on and Artemis snapped her fingers as Bianca's body dissapeared.

'To her father's palace.' She said in reply to the questioning glances.

The chariot was hard pressed for space as Zöe and Percy somehow managed to wound up together. Artemis shot a dissaproving look.

She flicked the reins as the deers flew into the sky. The cold night air chilled the group. Percy shot a quick glance at Zöe as she reached out to hold his hand. The warmth spread across to his whole body. He had never felt as happy as he did then as the deers flew across the full moon into dark, starry night.

 **A/N: NEW CHAPTER UP.**


	14. The Throne Room

**A/N: I'm back! With an actual chapter this time. There's so much I've all planned out. I hope you enjoyed the story until this point. Thanks so much for all your support and reviews. I'll try to keep a steady update schedule, but I can't be sure. On another note, I didn't find a single proper beta reader - which is why the earlier chapters are still as they are. So if anybody's interested, the position is still open. Now, on with the story(Finally).**

'Perseus Jackson!' Boomed out Zeus, the King of the Gods. 'How do you justify your actions?'

The Throne Room was silent in its vastness. The Olympians looked down at the small group of heroes. Percy faltered for a moment, wondering what to say.

'Why… what?' He said uncertainly, 'Justify what?'

Zeus looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

'After all this, you have the courage to ask 'what?' He shouted, anger seeping into his voice.

'You have been deemed responsible for the momentary escape of Atlas, the imprisonement of my daughter and the near death of her lieutenant.' Zeus shot the words at him like a knife.

'What!?' Exclaimed Percy, 'None of this is true!' He said defensively, 'How can you blame me for these things?'

Zeus looked at him as if he was a very interesting rat in a lab experiment.

'You dare question the veracity of my daughter, Artemis?' He left the threat hanging in the air.

The atmosphere was electric with his accusation.

Percy looked at him disbelievingly. Then he looked at Artemis. Artemis averted her eyes and looked ahead with a proud face.

Percy was at a loss at what to do. All of this seemed like a bad dream.

'I think she must have been mistaken.' He told Zeus.

Zeus clapped his hands as thunder boomed out.

'There is nothing to be mistaken. Either you did it or you did not do it. Which one is it?'

'I couldn't have done any of this. Only Kronos could have been responsible.' Percy said.

The Throne Room was deadly silent.

Percy fidgeted with his hands nervously. He could only guess what Artemis had told Zeus. Why she done so was something he could not fathom.

Suddenly bits of chatter spread throughout the place. The Gods were conversing among themselves and the heavy set tones of Ares marked a sharp contrast to Aphrodite slightly shrill voice. The Olympians were arguing as usual except for Dionysus - who had a slightly bored expression on his face while trying to make his drink into a goblet of wine.

Thunder boomed out again.

'ORDER!' Zeus bellowed.

'Very well, Perseus. I believe we should put this to vote of the council. Anybody who does not believe what my daughter, an Olympian herself told me and trusts the words of this boy – who claims _Kronos_ had a hand in this, please raise your hands. The punishement for being guilty is Tarturus. You have 30 seconds to decide.'

For the first ten seconds nobody except Poseidon had his hand raised, who was looking at Percy with a reassuring smile.

'I know what happened.' Heaphasatus said, 'I was watching after Talos.' He raised his hand.

'You're awesome, and you saved my baby sister.' Apollo said, flashing him a smile, and raised his hand.

'Despite what father says, I am inclined to believe you. I too have seen the signs.' Athena said, and raised her hand.

Demeter raised her hand, just because she was nice that way.

'You fought for my daughter, even though she died.' Hades said impassively. Zeus almost looked impressed before Hades raised his hand.

Only 5 seconds were left, 6 out of the 13 had their hands raised. It seemed it was all over for Percy before Artemis called out,

'I refuse to partcipate.' She said.

Zeus' face turned as red as a tomato.

'You can't do that.' He called out.

'I can.' Artemis replied defiantly.

'But you yourself told me that Percy…' Zeus stuttered a bit.

'I still refuse to be a part of this.' Artemis said, 'Consider one less Olympian is present.'

Zeus glared at her daughter before counting the hands raised. It was half and half. A vindictive smile came onto Zeus's face.

'When the council is unable to reach to a decision,' Zeus announced, 'I have the power to make the decision myself.'

Everybody could feel it in their bones that Zeus was about to send Percy to a fate worse than death, though the reasons were still unclear. He opened his mouth to speak but somebody got there before him.

Athena quickly interjeced,' But your sentence must be less harsh than the one proposed initially.'

Zeus glowered at Athena for a bit before harrumphing a little about 'stupid Ancient Laws' .

Everobody watched on with a fascinated silence. There had been no trial like this since the last Giant War.

Zeus finally spoke, summoning the thunder again just for effect.

'I have decided. Perseus - your punishement shall be exile from Olympus and all who are loyal to it. You shall leave Camp Half-Blood. You have three months to prepare. After that, you shall be killed on sight.'

This announcement was immediately greeted by furious outbursts from those who voted for Perseus, especially Poseidon. The Sea-God threatened war on Zues and even Hestia, who was usually quite, had a word to say.

But a clap of thunder and a reminder of the Ancient Laws soon had everybody siilenced.

For even though Zeus was arrogant, autocratic, stupid and disloyal, he was still the King of the Gods.

In all this, Percy was uncharacterestically quite. Bianca's death still weighed heavily on his mind and very small part of him told him he deserved what he got.

He slowly walked towards the elevator while the Gods continued with their meeting.

Zöe had all but vanished from his mind before she came running after him.

'Percy.' She said breathlessly.

Percy looked back at her. Her onyx blanck eyes were full of concern and her hair was strewn haphazardly around her face.

'What, Zöe?' Percy said, his words coming out harsher than he intended.

'I…I'm sorry.' She said.

Percy nodded, and then looked at her quizically.

'What are you going to do now?' He said, 'You can't join the hunters now, can you? I mean, you're not immortal anymore.'

'Oh, but I can.' Zöe said happily,' I can still run around with the hunters. The only thing is, it won't be for very long. But Artemis promised to try and find some way.'

'Artemis.' Percy said darkly.

'Don't blame her. I think Zeus took what she said in the way he wanted. And to be fair, she didn't want you to go Tarturus either.' Her voice was almost pleading.

Percy just gave her another sceptical look before turning his back on her.

Zöe pulled his hand back.

'Percy, remember, if you ever need help, the hunters will be there for you.'

Percy gave her a soft smile before shaking his hand from his grasp.

He was still a bit hurt. She hadn't even mentioned anything about Mount Tam. Was it all just a… passing incident? There was so much that he wanted to say.

'I'll see you around, Miss Nightshade.' He grinned cheeckily at her as the elevator doors closed in front of him.

 **A/N: How was it? Please leave a review so that I have some inkling of what you people thought of it. The chapter was a bit short - but they're only going to get longer from now on.**


	15. Mistakes

**A/N: I fixed that typo you guys mentioned. Thanks for pointing it out. One new chapter coming up. Read on.**

Percy POV

My head was in a whirl. This could not be happening. This went beyond all idiocy, even for Zeus. And then there was Artemis - why she… betrayed me in such a way was unfathomable. Especially after I had just saved her oldest friend. Zöe… my thoughts again wandered towards her. But no, I shook my head – I would not think about her. There were more important things I had to do.

Camp seemed like some long lost dream that I had just wandered into. I saw those familiar faces smile at me and scowl towards me. Chiron trotted towards me just as he I entering my cabin.

'My boy, I've just heard, what exactly happened?' He asked concernedly.

I gave a sigh and asked, 'Exactly how much has Dionysus told you?'

'Nothing at all, except that you'll be leaving camp in three months.'

I smiled wryly towards him, 'It'll probably be much before that.' And told him all that had happened in the throne room.

He looked at me sadly, 'Alas,! Nobody can control what the Gods think or what they do. I have lost many a fine hero to their meddlings.'

I didn't really have much to say to that so I muterred a quick goodbye and went inside the otherwise empty Poseidon cabin.

I looked at my modest group of belongings. With a heavy heart I began to pack all the necessary items into a small bag.

I had memories back at this camp. Good memories and bad ones. It was my home away from home. Cut that, this _was_ my home. This was the place where I could be who I was. Where I could take pride in being a Son of Poseidon and not get expelled for busting the plumber system.

But I wouldn't be staying here another three months. I would be leaving soon; quite soon, in fact. Percy Jackson would be gone from here the next day.

3rd Person POV

The forest was bereft of any humans, but that was before one looked closely.

Artemis was busy teaching her younger hunters how to hit a moving target from 30 yards out. She moved quitely from girl to girl, ensuring their technique was perfect before moving on. The pleasant, soft twangs of their bows had filled the clearing as Artemis looked at them proudly. They would become skillful hunters one day.

Suddenly a stomping sound came to her ears. It appeared to be angry and it seemed to approaching in her direction. Artemis had a very good idea of who it was.

She turned back cautiously to face an angry Zöe.

'Artemis!' She said in a loud, angry and slightly betrayed voice.

Artemis shushed with her fingers and motioned to the hunters behind her,

'It would not do for them to hear this.' She said softly.

Zöe nodded, still seething in anger.

'Artemis!' She cleared her throat and started again, 'I need your help with…' Zöe paused for a second, 'An arrow. It… ummm… broke.' She said hesitantly.

Artemis nodded imperiously at once.

'I'm coming. Girls,' She looked back at her charges, 'I want these hundred arrows finished by the time I come back.'

'What hundred arrows?' One of them asked.

'These.' Artemis replied and snapped her fingers. Instantly, a hundred arrows appeard.

An audible groan elicited from the group.

'You _had_ to ask her.' One of them groaned in a tired voice.

This was accepted as the general opinion.

Aurey, a more mature and perceptive hunter mused thoughtfully, 'I wonder why exactly Zöe needs her.'

Another hunter giggled.

Zöe paced inside Artemis's tent.

'How could you?' She said angrily, 'He saved my life. Does that mean nothing to you?'

Artemis was quiet as a she heard out Zoe for the next few minutes.

'I'm sorry.' She said finally, 'I… misjudged the effect of my actions. I didn't expect Zeus to act this way. I just didn't want him to favour the boy.'

'His name is Percy.' Said Zöe, 'And what exactly did you have against him? Other than the fact that he is a boy, he did nothing wrong.'

Artemis held up her hands,

'Peace, Zöe. Don't judge me too harshly. But he saved your life. He proved me wrong. He, a boy, saved your life. My pride got the better of me.'

'But I was wrong, I admit that.' She continued quickly as she noticed Zöe opening her mouth.

Zöe looked at her in disbelief.

'What exactly did you tell Zeus?' She asked.

'Nothing much.' Artemis said hurriedly, 'I just sort of changed the facts a little bit.'

'How much _exactly_?' Zöe insisted.

'Well,' Started Artemis, 'I basically told him that I had been trapped on Mount Orthyrs for a while. So Percy came and Luke took the sky from Atlas because he(Luke) couldn't defeat Percy. But then Percy was on the same side as Atlas. So with Atlas freed and me in chains, Percy took advantage of the situation and also tried to kill you.'

Zöe looked at her in awe, disgusted at what she said before a thought came into her head.

'Could you repeat your last sentence?' She asked.

'He tried to kill…' Artemis started.

'No, not that one.' Zöe cut her off, 'Before that.'

Artemis continued, 'Percy took advantage of the situation and…'

A horrified expression of self-realization came onto her face.

'No!' She said out loud. A moment of silence passed.

'Did you say exactly that to Zeus, just after you mentioned yourself being in chains?' Zöe insisted again.

Artemis's horrified expression grew,

'Yes.' Her voice came out in barely a whisper.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Zöe burst out into laughter onto the bed beside her. She clutched her sides in amusement.

'Oh my gods,' She said, 'This is too good.'

Artemis still had that horrified look on her face.

'Zöe!' She said reproachfully, 'This is serious.'

Zöe ignored her and said, 'So that's why Zeus was so angry. He… he thought that his precious daughter….' Zöe could say no more, she burst into a fresh bout of laughter again.

'You're impossible!' Artemis angrily shouted at Zöe but to no avail. Zöe threw a pillow at her. But Artemis barely noticed it.

She was busy lost in her own thoughts.

 _What had she done?_

 **A/N: I really enjoyed writing this. What did you think of it? Still looking for a beta, by the way. C'mon you guys. I know you can do better.**


	16. Exiled

**A/N: This chapter is a bit longer than the previous ones. Hope you like it.**

Percy stood in front of his mother's apartment door, wondering what to say. It had all been so hard, the last couple of days. So many jumbled emotions, one of them prominently shining out from the huddle, crying out to be heard. But Percy shook his head fervently - it was impossible.

He tapped his feet on the ground and rung the bell. Barely ten seconds later the door was flung open.

'Percy! You're here!' His mom exclaimed ecstatically.

She smothered him in hugs and kisses. Percy bore it with a happy smile on his face. It had been so long since they had seen each other.

'Mom… I'm back'

'I can see that, but I don't think you'll be here for long somehow.'

Percy grimaced inwardly, moms had a strange knack for knowing things you hadn't told them yet.

'Percy?' His mom said uncertainly, seeing the look on his face. 'Did something happen?'

'A lot.' He said tiredly.

They had a long talk in which Percy told her most of the things that happened since they met, but left out the part about being exiled from Olympus for fairly obvious reasons. He didn't want her to worry.

After a restful night's sleep, he decided he had to go. He was a demigod, and demigods attracted monsters. With a "Love you, Mom." he was off towards the outskirts of the city.

He still had no clue what he could other than leave the country. But everything he had treasured was here, and other places were even more dangerous for demigods like him. He eventually came to a familiar hill.

Percy walked along the side of camp half-blood, picturing the strawberry fields in his mind. He knelt down and concentrated on a single blade of grass in front of him still glistening with the morning dew.

Just as he had made up his mind to try for the west part of the country a familiar headache stole over him. It was excruciating - far worse than the ones he had endured before.

Visions started flashing in front of his eyes.

 _A huge army of monsters marching through a maze._

More-

 _A volcano erupting, the fumes spewing out and from within a massive dark shape emerging._

Another-

 _Two pure golden eyes staring at him as if they could see his very soul._

With a jolt Percy came back to the present. He found he was sweating. It had looked all so real. Why was this happening to him? It had been so long since the last one. Suddenly the leaves started rustling in front of him. In a heartbeat Apollo had appeared in front of him.

He looked to his sides frantically beofre noticing Percy in front him. For a change, he looked very serious.

'What happened Percy? I just noticed a power surge in my domain and rushed here as fast as I could.' Apollo said.

'Which domain?' Percy asked tentatively, even though he knew the answer.

'Of Prophecies, seeing the future.'

Percy eyes widened a fraction before he said,

'But its not like I'm an Oracle, am I? I mean they don't remember their prophecies, do they?'

Apollo shook his head.

'So you're hearing prophecies in your head? That's usually a sign of something else. But that's Dionysus' domain.'

'I am _not_ going mad.' Percy protested fervently, 'I'm just having these visions, images appearing before my eyes and some massive headaches.'

'I know dude, I know you're not mad.' Apollo held up his hands, flashing his teeth for once ' I was just messing around, I felt the power surge myself.'

A more contemplative look came on to his face,

'So visions, huh? I don't know what to do about them. As for the headaches,' Apollo tossed Percy what looked like a bag of white pills, ' have one each night before you go to sleep - it should help.'

'Listen kid,' The sun god continued, ' I know you're probably thinking about leaving the country. Don't do it.'

'So that Zeus can kill me?'

Apollo shrugged, 'I'm sure you'll figure something out. I've… I've seen things about the future. You shouldn't leave.'

Percy glared at him incredulously, 'I'm supposed to take your word for it?'

'Percy, believe me when I say I'm on your side. I'm a god, I think my word counts for something.' He was dead serious. Suddenly his mood changed.

'See you around, bro.' Apollo flashed him a blinding grin and was off in a flash.

Percy shook his head. He never could figure out gods.

But as much as it pained to admit it, he did believe Apollo. The Fates had never been kind to him. There was also the obviously maddening fact that Apollo knew much more than he let on.

* * *

The next few weeks were very hard for the young demigod. His thoughts kept going back to the huge monster emerging from the volcano and most of all, those terrifying golden eyes.

Percy slept out in the open, near any trees he could find. He paid for essentials from the little savings he had and managed to get by. The water always rejuvenated him, regardless of how tired he would be. He encountered his first real fright somewhere near Albany, north of New York.

It had started with a 'commonplace' hellhound. It looked completely crazy and seemed to devour Percy with his blood red eyes before actually trying to do so.

Riptide bestowed a quick death upon it.

Then another hellhound appeared up the street. Percy gave chase, acutely conscious of how he looked to the casual passerby even though he knew they couldn't see the glowing sword.

The hellhound led him to a small dark alley with a dead end. The demigod realised too late that it was a trap. After dealing the hellhound, he looked back to see himself surrounded by monsters with no way to escape than through them

It was completely mind blowing. Monsters were never known for being so co-ordinated and were very stupid at best.

Percy cursed as he looked at the monsters around him.

'Bring it on, pea brains!' He shouted, feeling a bit foolhardy. There had to be over a hundred of them.

The monsters held back for a bit, as if waiting for a signal. Then they rushed together at once. Percy managed to kill two of them and just as he had pulled Riptide out of a monster, he felt a foreign presence near him. He whirled around, ready to attack before he found himslef being teleported.

The moment his shoulder was released he looked sharply at who had managed to abduct him.

To his surprise, it was Artemis.

'Artemis.' His voice came out as an unitentional hiss.

'Consider this as a part of my apology.' She said, looking sincerely sorry. She placed her hand on his shoulder which he had just noticed was badly wounded and bleeding profusely. A moster had bitten him somehow.

She sent silver pulses as it healed quickly.

Percy looked at her sceptically,

'You didn't need to do that. Save me from there, I mean' He said.

'You would have died.' Artemis said simply.

'Since when did you care?' Percy said bitterly, 'You're the reason I'm here in this mess. Don't tell me you expect me to thank you or forgive you in any way.'

Percy felt he had gone a bit too far when Artemis' eyes flashed red. But they went away just as suddenly.

Artemis shook her head.

'Be glad I noticed the cluster of monsters from my moon chariot. I suspect Kronos had a hand in it.'

And just as inexplicably, she teleported away. The lone demigod was left alone in the middle of what looked like a forest in complete awe. It just seemed so transparently impossible what had just happened to him.

If the monsters had attacked him one day late, it would have all been over.

His allotted three months would be over tomorrow.

 **A/N: Yeah, so no Zöe in this chapter. But you probably won't have to wait for long. What do you think of it? Please review.**


	17. Wounded

**A/N: I** **expect you expected the wait. An extra long chapter coming right up.**

Percy wandered in the forests, his head aching profusely. He held Riptide tightly in his hand, wandering through one of the numerous forests near the middle of the country. His sword was bloodied from a recent fight with a couple of rogue monsters. One of them had got a glancing blow on his forehead with its claws which bleeding down his cheek. There was no water nearby and his supply of Ambrosia was dwindling, so he let it be. His main motive had become to kill all the monsters he could and help a few demigods he encountered who didn't know about there heritage. He had only helped 7 who were now safely in Camp Half-blood. It was not much considering that it had been 8 months since the beginning of his exile.

He wore an old, tattered camp half blood T-shirt along with some equally dilapidated jeans. But his eyes shone with the same vitality as ever, albeit a bit tired from the recent bout.

He set out to find a decent tree when a few leaves rustled behind. Something felt quite wrong, it was a feeling he got quite used over the last few years. The demigod turned back instantly. To his horror, he found a very old enemy of his. He was as frightening as ever, especially in the state Percy found himself in.

Grinning evilly in front of him was Ares.

'You can't escape forever, runt. The Ancient Laws are with me now. Zeus himself has ordered your death.' The God of War held two military rifles beside him and was covered with knives and other weaponery on every inch of his body.

'From you, I don't need to.' Percy shot back mockingly.

'Big words, coming from a puny demigod like yourself. Somebody's been hiding you from my eyes, but no longer. Fight me, you coward!'

'Why? Still bitter about last time?'

Ares shot a volley of bullets towards the demigod. But when the dust cleared, Percy was gone. Suddenly a sword shot towards Ares' spine as he let out a roar of pain.

'You little…' Ares bellowed, yanking out the sword and casting it aside, 'How dare you attack unfairly from behind?'

'You talk of fair. Who's the one fighting the God of War?' A voice came from above and behind Ares.

Instantly a spear imbedded itself in the tree from where the voice was coming. Percy jumped down in front of Ares, wielding Riptide. A sword materialized in Ares' hands as he slashed with powerful, accurate blows. Percy parried and let out a cry of pain as the tip of a sword caught him in the shoulder. His concentration was already fading from the headache he was enduring. He knew he could not carry on much longer. With the last ounces of his energy he distracted Ares with water from a nearby puddle and thrust Riptide deep into the god's chest. Golden ichor leaked profusely from the wound. Ares glared murderously at Percy.

'A lucky blow… Your days are numbered boy, mark my words. I will leave for now.'

He glowed brilliantly and vanished along with Riptide.

Percy's heart almost stopped for a moment before he put his hand in his pocket and found the comforting familiar presence of his pen there.

Suddenly the adrenalin was gone. It was gone in a shot, as fast as it had come. He felt weaker than he had in months and dangerously vulnerable. A spire of smoke went up in the distance from between a clump of trees. Percy gathered the very last vestiges of his strength and followed his feet towards the smoke. He was feeling delirious as he entered the campsite. Some of the figures looked faintly familiar as he fell down dramatically at its entrance.

' _Water_.' Was the last thing he said.

* * *

It was night when he woke up in a very comfortable bed. His shoulder throbed painfully. He clutched it and looked around to find someone looking at him nervously. She was looking at him nervously with onyx black eyes and there was a stiffness to her posture which did not suit her in the least. Her hair fell carelessly around her shoulders.

'Zöe…' Percy said in wonder, trying to get up. She instantly got up and stopped him from rising.

'Rest Percy, Artemis will soon be here.'

Almost as if she had heard her, Artemis strode into the spacious tent. She tread softly over the animal skin rugs and approached Percy.

'You are in grave danger.' She said.

'From you.' Percy said without thinking.

Her jaw clenched. 'Not anymore.' Artemis said, her silver eyes boring into Percy's brain.

'I don't believe you.'

Artemis looked clearly ready to get into an argument, but Zöe intervened.

'Not now, my lady. I believe he needs some rest.'

Percy heard Artemis leave and turned his head to look intently at Zöe. Her lithe figure complemented her manner. Her eyes were as mesmerizing as ever and she looked back at him with concern, blushing a little.

She seemed to sense Percy's thoughts as she drew a little closer.

'We can't do this.' She whispered with her lips brushing over Percy's ear. Percy shivered involuntarily. He caught her hand.

'We can.' He said with convinction, 'The hunt – why am I alive?'

'They don't know you're here. It's just me and Artemis.'

'Zeus ordered Artemis…' His voice trailed off.

'Artemis won't kill you. She made a mistake.' Said Zöe, 'You'll understand.'

With that she stood up straight and walked away from Percy's bed. Percy slowly felt his vision blur before he, once again, went back to sleep.

But unfortunately, demigod dreams weren't as pleasant as normal ones. Percy found himself wandering over a pile of rubble. Broken buildings and shaterred windows were all around. The sun was setting and the sky was a disturbing shade of red.

But from within the rubble, he suddenly saw someone approaching. It was Zöe, treading softly over the ruins. His breathe hitched. She was prettier than ever. She approached him and softly put her hands around his neck. Enticingly, she drew closer. Suddenly their lips met.

Percy felt as if he was in heaven, but something strangely felt wrong about this. She would never act like this. He drew away, and as he did, her eyes slowly changed from black to pure gold.

When she spoke, her voice rumbled deeply, _'Percy Jackson_.'

Percy quickly retreated to a distance. This wasn't Zöe.

Zöe or whoever it was spoke again, 'Young demigod, I can make all your dreams come true. You need only do one thing for me.'

'Kronos!' Percy realised. He was feeling very uncomfortable. This wasn't right.

'Yes, it is me. I have one proposition for you. A proposition other people would die for.'

'Never!'

'I would give you the honor of being my host.'

It took a moment to sink in. Percy blinked, 'Host? Me?'

'Yes, you. You satisfy most of my requirements save one. But a dip in the styx should correct that. You would be an ideal person if you' Suddenly his voice grew angrier, 'If you weren't so devoted to the gods! TELL ME, what have they done for you? I promise to fullfil your dreams, they have done NOTHING but hinder you!'

Percy was about to shout a fervent denial before he caught on to what Kronos was saying. His logical side(the little he had) asked him to think but his other side knew there was only one response.

'NEV…' He began to shout but it was too late. He suddenly felt a soft hand on his chest.

'Percy, please…' Zöe said sweetly. She came closer, her hands running down his spine .

Percy felt his resolve crumbling, but he forced himself to push her away. _This wasn't Zöe, this was Kronos!_

Zöe stumbled back a few steps before Kronos came back again, the gold eyes shining in full force.

'You utter fool! I tried to convince you, but you had to be so stubborn. Just like your father.' The anger slowly ebbed until Kronos spoke again, in a frightfully chilling voice.

'You have made your choice. But I give you this final chance to reconsider. Take this ring.' Kronos threw a ring towards him, 'If you change your mind, wear this ring and say my name. Think carefully, Kronos does not offer second chances very often.'

With that, the dream ended and Percy felt himself waking up.

With a sinking feeling, he felt something hard inside his fisted hand. He opened it apprehensively. The golden ring innocently lay inside, looking for all the world just a small little piece of old, ornate jewellery.

 **A/N: Maybe I was a bit too harsh, but Kronos just felt like it. How was the chapter? Please leave a review.**


	18. The Hunt

**A/N: I really appreciate all the support. Each one of you gets a cookie from me (::). Don't let it become stale.**

Zöe pressed a cold towel to his forehead as Percy grinned weakly towards her. He was lying down on a spare bed in Artemis's tent.

'I like your hair'. He muttered. Zöe glared murderously at him.

'You do not flirt with me or say things like that in my mistresses's presence.' She shot at him in a harsh whisper.

 _So I can do that when she's not here?_ Percy thought, smiling internally.

Artemis lifted her head a bit from the corner of the tent where she was mending some bows.

'Is anything the matter, Zöe?' She asked.

'Nothing, my lady.' Zöe hurriedly replied. She glared back at Percy.

'So,' Percy continued, 'how long before she turns me over to Zeus?'

The huntress's hands twitched to slap Percy but that would surely get Artemis's attention. She settled for dragging the towel onto his eyes instead.

'Ouch.' Came a muffled voice, 'What was that for?'

Zöe dragged the towel upwards.

'She is _not_ going to turn you in, Percy.'

It was clear he didn't believe her.A calm, resigned look came onto his face as he continued,

'What are you going to do with me then? Just let me go? You would have done that before if you meant to do that.'

'You're ill, Percy. You're severely undernourished and dehydrated. You think we could have just let you go?'

'Yeah, I mean. It's not like Artemis cares, anyway.' His voice slightly broke.

 _Percy could not be thinking like that._ Zöe grabbed his face in her hands.

'Look at me, Percy. _I_ do. And I'm not going to let Zeus kill you.'

Percy heaved a sigh,

'I trust you, Zöe. It's just that I don't trust _her_.' He nodded his head in Artemis's direction.

Much to Zöe's surprise, he suddenly heaved his legs off the bed and sat up straight.

'I need to get better faster.' He said, Where's the nearest water source?'

'There is this lake nearby which we use for baths.' Zöe said unsurely.

'C'mon.' Said Percy, standing unsteadily on his feet. 'It's the middle of the night. I don't think anybody will notice.'

He shakily walked towards the tent flap when Artemis stopped him.

'Where do you think you are going, Perseus?' She asked sharply.

'Water.' Was his simple reply. He walked outside.

Zöe glanced helplessly at Artemis.

'He says it will help his fever. I'll just take him to the nearest lake and see that he doesn't get into any trouble.'

Artemis slightly tilted her head by way of acquisence.

The worried girl almost ran out to catch up with Percy when she saw him sprawled on the ground two feet in front of the tent. She bit back a smile. He looked so completely ridiculous and helpless.

'I leave you for two minutes…' She said while helping him back to his feet.

Percy looked at her sheepishly.

'There was this tent peg.'

Zöe simply shook her hand and put an arm around his shoulders to help him keep his balance. They slowly made their way to the lake. Its surroundings were quiet and serene. Trees and foliage surrounded it on all sides and the only visible light was a flicker coming from the direction of the hunt.

Percy stopped in front of the dark water and looked at her.

'This is where you jump in, right?' Zöe asked.

'Yes.' He said distractedly. He seemed to be lost in his memories. It was almost as if the lake reminded him of something or someone. Zöe wondered what it could be that distracted him so much. After a while, he looked up from the lake and stole a glance at her. Then, quite unexpectedly, he dived into the water.

Zöe shook off a weird feeling she was having and looked around for a rock to sit on. She sat down on a suitable flat one and delved into her hundreds of years of memories to pass the time. She would wait for Percy.

* * *

The first rays of sunlight had just started to creep through when Zöe seriously started considering jumping into the lake to retrieve Percy. It wouldn't be long before the hunters were here and then… She didn't want to think about explaining all this to a group of man hating hunters. Well, technically she was a man hating huntress herself but then again, this was a special scenario.

Thankfully, Percy resurfaced not long after – eliciting a sigh of relief from Zöe.

'Thank the gods you're back, Percy. I was getting worried.'

'About me? I'm a son of Poseidon. I don't drown. You know that, right?' He seemed to back to his usual cheerful self.

'Yes.' Zöe rolled her eyes, 'It wasn't you drowning which I was worried about.'

'Then what-' Percy started but Zöe broke him off.

'We need to go. Artemis's tent. Now.' She shot off like an arrow.

Percy ran behind her, struggling to keep up with her speed.

She smirked at him as he arrived, huffing.

'I'm impressed. I didn't have to wait more than four seconds.'

Percy shot her a dark look,

'In case you didn't notice, I just recovered from last night.'

Zöe waved her hand.

' _Boys_.' She said in her usual disgusted tone. But Percy knew she didn't mean it that way.

Artemis was awake when they entered.

'Don't you ever sleep?' Percy asked curiously.

'I don't need to. But in case you're wondering, I do take some power recovery naps sometimes.' Artemis answered.

'She means she crashes into bed for dozens of hours sometimes. She's almost impossible to wake.' Zöe whispered from behind Percy and promptly came ahead to stand beside him.

Percy grinned slightly, imagining Artemis sleeping innocently with Zöe trying to wake her up. He quickly dismissed that train of thought as Artemis addressed him seriously.

'We need to do something about you.' She said.

Percy's heart rate crept up alarmingly. This was it. Artemis was going to turn him over and nobody would be able to stop her.

Zöe discreetly squeezed his hand. Artemis looked to be deep in thought and didn't notice.

'My lady.' Zöe spoke up.

'Yes, Zöe?'

'I have a suggestion.' Artemis didn't object so she continued.

'We could keep him here with us.' 'We won't tell the other hunters, of course.' She said hurriedly in reponse to Artemis's raised eyebrow.

'How can we do that?' Artemis asked, her interest piqued.

'Let's say a sick maiden came to you for help and you obviously couldn't refuse, so you let her stay till she gets better.'

Artemis smiled slightly.

'You think we could pass Percy off as a girl? He may have many feminine traits but I don't think that would be enough convince the hunters.'

'No.' Zöe's eyes widened. 'I meant that no one would have to see him because…er because his, no _her_ , illness is contagious and could spread if someone gets close.'

Artemis seemed to consider this carefully before nodding.

'We can do that. If he gets caught, that's his problem.'

'Okay.' Zöe nodded confidently.

'Ummm… excuse me here.' Percy started, 'Is nobody going to ask if I'm alright with this? I mean, you could just let me go.'

'We can't.' Artemis objected.

'Why not?'

Artemis simply looked incredulously at him before walking out of the tent.

He turned to Zöe.

She looked at him sadly.

'You wouldn't last a day without our help. You'll probably fall off some tree and break your leg.'

Coming from a hunter, that hurt.

'Hey!' Said Percy in an insulted voice, 'It was only that one time. And I had ambrosia. I was fine.'

'But that's not all of it.' Zöe started in a matter of fact tone before becoming more serious.

'Zeus has Ares, Dionysus and Aphrodite looking for you. You won't be able to avoid all of them for more than a week at most. Without us helping you, that is.'

Percy looked at her thoughtfully. Things did look pretty bleak. It seemed as if he would just have to wait it out till everyone thought he was dead. He knew Zöe and Artemis were taking a big risk by letting him stay here. If Zeus found out, the hunt would suffer for it.

'Thanks a lot, Zöe. I don't know what I would have done without you.' He said gratefully.

The tips of Zöe's ears turned slightly red.

'Thank Artemis. I still can't believe she agreed.' She said.

On a sudden impulse, Percy leaned closer and kissed her on the cheek.

'I still thank you.'

 **A/N: Not much of action but I hope you people don't mind. Percy's with the hunt but (surprise!) he's not the guardian. The events of book 4 get a tweak in the next chapter.**


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